Crypto Gambling Safety: CGF Verification and What it Means to You
The idea of conducting casino games over the internet with decentralized currency has a lot of advantages. The only real drawback is a resounding lack of trust between players and casinos. The use of Bitcoin, an unregulated source of funds, limits regulatory oversight.
The world’s strictest regulators, such as the UK Gambling Commission, refuse to license any casino that deals in digital tokens. As a result, almost every crypto casino on the web maintains a regulatory license in Curacao. Unfortunately, Curacao doesn’t offer nearly the same degree of player protections. So how are we, as players, meant to genuinely trust these companies? How do we differentiate between the good guys, and the bad guys, when regulatory authorities can’t do it for us?
Traditionally, we would do this by probing the casino for player complaints. We investigate a company’s background, see how long it’s been in business, and whether its sustained a high rating for customer satisfaction over that period of time. But now, there’s a new way to quickly determine the legitimacy of a Bitcoin casino. Just look for the Crypto Gambling Verified seal of approval.
What is the Crypto Gambling Foundation?
The Crypto Gambling Foundation (CGF) is a small, privately held company in Las Vegas, Nevada. Its primary intention is to raise awareness and trust in the cryptographic future of online gambling. Since 2017, CGF founders are consistently promoting quintessential business practices that they believe will become the new standard as more operators, more players, and eventually more governments, acquiesce to the fast-approaching future of monetary decentralization.
The organization’s mission centers largely around provably fair gaming. It is a concept they encourage all crypto casinos to integrate in their games menu. CGF offers all the tools necessary to develop and publish provably fair gaming content, as well as accreditation for those casinos that incorporate this ultimate level of trust in their games.
Official Seal of Crypto Gambling Verification
You’ll know right away if the website you’re visiting is certified fair by the CGF. Just scroll down to the bottom of the website’s main page. There, near the company/copyright info, you should see an array of logos. Most of them will refer to payment methods and/or software partners. Look closely for the one that says “Crypto Gambling Foundation Verified Operator”. It should look exactly like, or very similar to, one of the below images.
When you see this seal on display, it means that the casino uses provably fair, blockchain technology to produce some or all of its games.
What are Provably Fair Casino Games?
Provably fair casino games are different from the type you find at most online casinos. Those regular games are built as computer programs. They utilize an algorithm known as a random number generator (RNG) to produce accurate but unpredictable results. Provably fair games are similar, yet remarkably different at the same time.
Provably fair games also use algorithms, but each step is recording along a blockchain. That means anyone can go back and view the nature of each and every the random result. In this way, you can prove that each and every result is truly random; that there was no tampering in any way.
The same is not true of standard RNG-based casino games. The only way to prove they are fair is to have the software itself tested and certified fair by a third party auditor. There’s no way for a player to go back and view the chain of algorithms to prove the result was indeed fair.
Why Does it Really Matter?
Read any of their promotional materials, and you’ll see the CGF is always boasting about gaming in a “trustless” environment. I know, the word trustless doesn’t sound like a positive term. Shouldn’t we want to trust the services we use, especially over the internet? Yes, we should, but the idea of a trustless iGaming experience isn’t about not having trust. It’s about not having to think or worry about trust in the first place.
Consider the reason you landed on this webpage. Odds are, you were searching for information about cyrpto casinos, in one capacity or another. The whole reason people are drawn to crypto currency is (or should be) because 1) it is decentralized; and 2) transactions take place on a blockchain.
The blockchain doesn’t require you to share personal information; only the transaction size, originating wallet, and destination wallet are visible. The only information you have to protect is the pass key for your wallet, so that you’re the only one who has access to the funds within it.
And because crypto is decentralized, it is not controlled by any central government. If it were, that government would want a record of all transactions, including proof of the identity of everyone involved in the transaction, mostly so it can determine if it has any right to collect tax on that transaction. As a decentralized currency, crypto coins are inherently untaxable, and for the most part, untraceable.
Long story short – crypto is a trustless means of payment. You don’t have to trust it. It just works. And you can prove it works by viewing the blockchain on which it transacts. The same as you can view provably fair games on their blockchain, with no question of whether they are fair or trustworthy. That’s why CGF Verification matters.
Crypto Gamlbing Safety: What Casinos are CGF Verified?
According to the CGF website, at time of writing, there are only 14 crypto casinos that proudly display the Crypto Gambling Foundation Verified Operator seal of approval. While we are certain that each of these operators are upholding best business practices, we don’t personally recommend all of them. In fact, only one has proven itself to be reputable (high customer satisfaction rating), responsible (licensed and regulated), and welcoming (Canadian players accepted) enough to make our list. That casino is One Hash.
See our Comprehensive Review of CGF Verified OneHash Casino to learn more about why our editors love it.
