Bitcoin, which promotes itself as the “first decentralized digital currency,” is starting to gain legitimacy as a digital currency in the physical world.
As reported by Kashmir Hill at Forbes last week, most of the major players in bitcoins (BTC) were recently Subpoenaed by the New York State Department of Financial Services so they could get a better understanding of how the currency works. Hill has also reported on how a Federal Judge gave bitcoin “his stamp of approval as real world money.”
With the advancements in the legitimacy of bitcoins as currency, it should come as no surprise that they are becoming a factor in the online gambling world, including casinos.
Organizers of online gambling sites are seeing potential for versatility in using bitcoins. In an article about the use of bitcoins in online casinos, Daniel Cawrey of Coindesk.com quotes Kevin Meehan, one of the owners of BitSaloon as saying, “Bitcoins already act like the chips/credits you see on other sites, but inherently have more value since they can immediately be taken off of a wallet on a gambling site and used at places like WordPress, Reddit or other vendors accepting BTC.”
In his article, Cawrey also notes that bitcoins can lead to transparency for the user making it more attractive but can also be a head ache for by the law as it allows avenues for casinos to launder money.
As a conclusion to the rise of bitcoins in online casinos and gambling, it seems the currency exceeds the average gambler as an unknown buyer purchased the gambling website SatoshiDice (a bitcoin company itself) for 126,315 BTC or about 11.5 million dollars last month. When federal judges rule in favor of it being real money and entire companies are bought using it, you can count on bitcoins being a mainstay, at least in the current future, in the online gaming world.
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