Published
4 years ago on
August 01, 2019
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Source: Pixabay
Online casinos can generally be found at the cutting edge of the tech industry. Whether introducing games based on popular culture trends, making developments in the smartphone app market or introducing AI-driven customer support functions, online casinos largely embrace the new. However, this hasn’t yet extended to a widespread adoption of cryptocurrency payment methods.
While a few online casinos have introduced Bitcoin transactions, most remain reluctant to expand their payment options. This is reminiscent of the industry’s stance towards PayPal in recent years. Most online casinos were slow to adopt PayPal as a means of financial transaction, but the unrelenting global popularity of the payment service forced companies to change their position. PayPal’s payment volume exceeded forecasts in 2018, so a growing number of online casinos have embraced the payment method.
As a secure payment service, PayPal comes with a distinct set of advantages. These include speedy transaction times, encrypted security and a user-friendly interface. However, PayPal is not without its drawbacks. Most notably, there is the potential for extra fees incurred by the user. Online casinos largely absorb the mandatory PayPal transaction fees, but there is the chance that customers could be forced to pay fees to service providers after making withdrawals.
Source: Pixabay
Comparisons can be made between the rise of PayPal and cryptocurrencies. Their similarities indicate that, just as they did with PayPal, online casinos will soon permit crypto payments.
A growing familiarity
People once found the nature of PayPal difficult to fathom, but now it is commonly accepted as a default payment method. Cryptocurrencies are not yet at that level, but they have one clear advantage over PayPal: they are newsworthy. The potential for the exponential growth of cryptos places them firmly on the radar of economists and politicians alike, with President Trump recently speaking out about his opinions on Bitcoin.
Facebook’s upcoming launch of its own cryptocurrency, Libra, will also become a regular feature of news broadcasts, whether as a success story or a cautionary tale. Either way, cryptocurrencies are becoming increasingly exposed to people who have little specific interest in finance. This growing familiarity could see online casinos bend to wider trends and introduce crypto payments, just as they did with PayPal.
Low transaction fees
The removal of hefty payments to providers, such as banks or companies like PayPal, would make the use of crypto payments work in an online casino’s favour. While there may be nominal Bitcoin transaction fees, these are not on the level of the usual payments splashed out on intermediaries. Logistically, cryptos make perfect sense for an online casino. However, there are still obstacles to its adoption.
The biggest obstacle is the lack of gaming infrastructure for the likes of Bitcoin. Currently, major game developers aren’t producing online slots structured for cryptocurrency-denominated gameplay. This means that the casino would have to transfer any crypto deposits into fiat currency, which is less than ideal given Bitcoin’s volatility in exchange markets. This could ensure the consumer loses out, which goes against the ethos of cryptocurrencies.
However, once this hurdle is removed then the mass adoption of cryptocurrency in the online casino industry is only a matter of time. If one of the leading e-commerce websites starts accepting crypto payments, online casinos could be quick to follow. Given the eclectic and substantial audience that online casinos cater to, this could have important ramifications for the mass adoption of cryptocurrencies in wider society.
The clear parallels with PayPal suggest that the adoption of cryptocurrencies at online casinos is a matter of when, not if.
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