Examining the Popularity of Canada Crypto Gambling Sites Today
Digital crypto currencies like Bitcoin (and a seemingly endless swarm of spin-off altcoins) have been circulating for more than a decade now. In that time, society has come to embrace the digital revolution, accepting crypto currency into the fold. Here in Canada especially, we’ve come to trust its use, appreciating its value as a functional medium of exchange.
Step back a few more years in time, to when a similar situation was revolving around the introduction of internet casinos. It began in the mid- to late-1990s. Few put trust in them, and those that did had to be vigilant in their scrutiny. In those days, iGaming was an unregulated, scantily secured frontier. Over time, it began evolving into a spectacular industry, closely mimicking the fascination of global gambling hubs like Las Vegas, Atlantic City, and Macau.
Now, we’re seeing a new trend developing, in which more iGamers are turning to BTC casinos. People have been conducting online gambling with crypto for years now, but the rate of adoption is spiking. Canadians seem to be particularly keen on betting with Bitcoin and altcoins. Today, we’ll take a look at why that is.
Why More Canadians are Turning to Crypto Casinos
We’ve spent a lot of time scouring the web, gathering opinions from real players on iGaming forums. We’re also Canadian crypto gamblers, ourselves. Between our own accounts and preferences, and the shared experiences of others, we’ve come up with three prominent reasons why more and more people are gambling with crypto in Canada. We’ll try to keep it brief.
Liberal Laws of Canada – It’s Perfectly Legal
Canada has some of the most liberal laws when it comes to online gambling and crypto currency. Internet casinos have never been illegal here. In fact, British Columbia was among the first of the world’s jurisdictions to adopt iGaming regulations back in the early 2000s. Most provinces now operate their own government-run gambling websites, showing just how open the nation is to the market. At the same time, Canadians are not prohibited from gambling at international online casinos. Both are perfectly legal.
On the crypto side of that coin, digital currencies are also legal. However, Canada’s home-grown gambling sites do not accept Bitcoin payments. That’s because the country doesn’t see crypto currency as legal tender, but rather a digital asset. This means it has real value and is an acceptable medium for barter and trade. But it’s not a legal currency, so you can’t pay your bills or taxes with it.
In both regards – iGaming and crypto – Canada supports a lawful framework.
Faster, Cheaper Payments – Crypto Cashouts are Instant
If you’re familiar with the traditional online gambling industry, you know that payment methods are not created equal. Casinos encourage deposits by offering instant credit of funds and zero fees. Withdrawals, on the other hand, are slow and often costly. That is, when you’re processing those payments in a fiat currency. If you’re transacting in crypto, you can expect your deposits and withdrawals to occur almost immediately, with little or no fees to pay.
Bitcoin casinos are famous for processing payments far quicker than operators that only deal in fiat currency. They’re able to do this because they don’t have to run every transaction through a throng of government mandates and checks. The decentralized nature of crypto allows users to move coins freely from one wallet to another (e.g. from your gambling account wallet to your personal wallet, and vice versa). It’s similar to handing cash to someone in person. It’s quick, free, and as we’ll cover in the next section, the government doesn’t need to know about it.
Realistically, the time it takes to transfer crypto depends on the coin you’re sending. Bitcoins are the slowest, and because of that, also the most expensive to send. Users pay higher transaction fees to speed them up. Most crypto casinos prefer to transact in a more stable coin, such as CasinoCoin [CSC], or even a proprietary crypto like TrueFlip Casino’s TFL Token. The transaction fees are as low as a few cents, if they charge you at all. Whatever the fee, it’s a negligible amount in comparison to expensive international bank wires that can take 3-7 days to arrive.
How Do I Know How Long it Will Take?
When making any deposit or withdrawal, the casino should give you an estimate of how long you can expect to wait, and the fee you can expect to pay, if any. For example, Playamo Casino states that all crypto deposits are “Free” and “Instant”. Once the payment is submitted, there’s no fee attached, and no waiting time before you can start playing games. Crypto withdrawals are also listed as “Free” and “Instant” at Playamo; something you won’t find at traditional online casinos, dealing in traditional fiat currencies.
Anonymous Gaming – Personal Data Remains Private
Unlike the standard iGaming industry, crypto gaming sites are well known for maintaining the privacy of their users. Many of these operators do not collect any personal information about their players. You can sign up an account with little more than a chosen username and password, and deposit crypto from any compatible wallet address.
This is not true of all crypto casinos. Some of them do require at least full account registration, if not identity documentation and verification. They do this so that if/when digital tokens become centralized, they’ll already be poised to operate in the strictest regulated markets. It actually points to a higher degree of trust, but offers nothing in the way of anonymity.
What you’ll come across more than anything are BTC casinos that state they may ask for ID verification under certain circumstances. The average user will never have to bother with verification. It pertains only to players who conduct suspicious or high volume activity; perhaps by transacting in very large amounts of crypto.
The benefits of gambling anonymously are many. It’s not just for duplicitous means, as some of you may be thinking. Sure, there will be some who use it for underhanded purposes. A professional gambler might be able to evade the taxman, even. But most of us are just casual gamers looking for a quick, convenient, secure way to play casino games online. There’s nothing wrong or illegal about that.
For us, it’s the indubitably faster experience that we appreciate. Most crypto casinos in Canada don’t require a lengthy, multi-page sign-up form, or 10+ minutes worth of document searching, scanning and uploading. These casinos don’t require us to share sensitive personal and financial information over the internet. Crypto gamblers like us can rest peacefully, knowing our personal data remains private.
Digital Games, Digital Coins – A Perfect Marriage
These are two markets with far too much in common to keep separate. Online casinos give you the ability to play digital, Vegas-style games, without the time and expense of traveling to a casino. Digital tokens like BTC, LTC, ETH, DOGE and others, allow you to move money from one location to another – no matter how far that location may be – without the time or expense of traditional transfers. These are two industries with a common goal of supporting ultimate convenience and cost efficiency in their individual markets. It’s no wonder they blend so well together.
