Spin City
So you have seen all those online casinos that accept payments in cryptocurrencies and are wondering how it all works and is it a feasible option for depositing money to casinos? On this page we’ll tell you all about it, lay it out for you plain and simple, with a practical guide and pros and cons of using crypto.
We will also explore three popular crypto gambling games reviewed by dappGambl: Bitcoin Blackjack, crypto slots, and Ethereum poker.
First and foremost, let’s briefly cover the basics, which would be the traditional payment methods that can be used to pay for something online – including making a deposit to an online casino. There are so many, because no payment method is perfect. You can make card deposits that are expensive and withdrawals take 3-5 days, you can use e-wallets but then you’re in trouble when you need to withdraw from an e-wallet, or you can use various vouchers and gift cards, in which case you’ll be withdrawing to a bank account anyway.
None of these payment methods are any better than the most traditional one, which is bank transfer. The only one that actually manages to make bank transfers faster and better is PayPal. The downside are the hefty fees, although they can be avoided for the most part.
A lot of people want to avoid the banking system altogether and want to benefit from blockchain technology. Some people do it because they hate banks, some want to avoid tax, some have privacy concerns, and some are just plain anarchists. For the most part, people want to take control back into their own hands and not rely on a central authority (central banks) for monetary value and control over payments. That’s what crypto does.
The practical purpose of crypto is that the payments are very fast and very cheap, especially when you move large lumps of money. This makes the entire gaming experience oh so much better.
You can play all the casino games that the fiat gamblers can, because your crypto will be converted into fiat anyway. This is the norm – though there are numerous casinos and sportsbooks that let you gamble in crypto directly. Purpose being, the value of your assets can grow while you play. Your funds are not out of the crypto world while you’re playing, as is the case when crypto is converted into fiat.
There are also specific crypto games you can play, such as crypto slots that let you place your bets every spin directly in crypto, crash games, dice games, Bitcoin blackjack as well as Ethereum poker. These are usually very niche things that are reserved for the enthusiasts that are looking for such a game specifically.
In the vast majority, your crypto deposit to an online casino will be instantly converted into fiat using the current exchange rate, without any exchange fees – though you should always check. In other words, when you deposit BTC you’ll see NZD on your account.
When it’s time to make a withdrawal, it will be processed back into crypto, again using the current exchange rate. In the meanwhile, you will be gambling in NZD.
Crypto payments allow online casinos to make instant payments, which means that this payment system basically exposes all those casinos that delayed payments and then blamed the financial system for it. In case of crypto payments, any delay can only come from the casino itself.
According to our experience, it’s best to use a service that integrates crypto with traditional payments and issues a plastic card that you can use to pay for stuff and withdraw money on an ATM. Though the real crypto enthusiasts will say you must use your own private wallet.
Anyway, there are lots of such options that issue plastic cards to Kiwis: Revolut, Wirex, Nexo, Crypto.com. Most of these cards offer some sort of a rakeback. Revolut is the best choice if you intend to use your bank account a lot, Nexo is great if you want to get a crypto credit card, and Wirex is the all-around best option.
We will now assume you got a functioning account with one of these services and tell you what the steps are.
You will either make a fiat deposit to your crypto wallet service, and then buy crypto with it, or you will directly buy crypto and have the wallet take the amount it needs to take for that purchase. Either way, you’ll have funds in your cryptocurrency of choice sitting in your wallet.
Then, you’ll go to your online casino, and click the crypto deposit, after which you’ll select the cryptocurrency you wish to deposit, and optionally the transfer network for that cryptocurrency. Then you’ll get a deposit address.
In your crypto wallet, you’ll make a withdrawal, and will input the wallet address you got from the casino as well as choose the transfer network. Always double-check the wallet address and the network as crypto transactions can’t be reversed. If the money is sent to a wrong address it is gone.
That’s it – you should have NZD in your online casino account, funded by cryptocurrency.
To make a withdrawal, simply reverse the steps. This time you’ll need to go to your crypto wallet first to get an address, and then you’ll input that address at the casino when you request a withdrawal.
Take note that casinos usually ask for KYC verification before they process a payment, which means that you’ll have to submit your proof of identity and proof of address at the very least. Some casinos will also ask for a screenshot of your crypto account but this is rare.
Most people still stick to traditional payment methods because crypto seems too much fuss. It is true, at least in the beginning, but once you open up a channel for crypto payments and learn how to use it, it will be a breeze.
For now, crypto isn’t as integrated with the financial system to make it a one-click kind of thing, so you do have to do some currency exchange, so to speak, and you need to manually copy-paste the crypto addresses.
One extra step that’s taken away by some services such as Nexo is that you can have crypto in your account, not fiat, and you can use the plastic card to make payments wherever you want. The crypto is converted into the required fiat amount on the fly.
In our experience, the largest benefit of crypto comes from avoiding the traditional payment methods that are, as a whole, really lousy. But let’s be specific about it:
Pros
Cons
Crypto payments are a superb way for any traditional gambler to speed up the payments and actually simplify them, even if there are a few extra steps compared to the usual payment methods. The true crypto enthusiasts can also benefit, as they don’t have to convert to fiat in order to gamble unless they really want to. In either case, crypto payments are a solid trustless system that simplifies everything – and the fees are minimal.
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