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The size of the online gambling market has gone through the roof. It is currently valued at more than $59 billion. A Statista estimate suggests that the market will rise in value to $92.9 billion by the end of 2023. 

Bitcoin gambling, on the other hand, has only started to pick up pace. As reported by  crypto media outlet, Bitcoin and altcoin gambling monitoring website The Bitcoin Strip, it is estimated that Bitcoin gamblers bet more than $4.5 billion between 2014 and 2017.

An increasing number of Bitcoin casinos have kept coming into the market since then, taking the total number of crypto casinos to 219.

As these numbers keep rising and the interest around Bitcoin gambling grows, the obvious question that comes to mind is: how safe is bitcoin gambling and whether or not it is legal?

Let’s take a look.

The Legality of Bitcoin Gambling

Very often, there is a striking similarity between the laws governing Bitcoin gambling and the laws governing online gambling or casinos as a whole within a country. And these laws may or may not be in close proximity to the laws around brick-and-mortar casinos in that country. 

Most countries, however, still lack regulatory certainty around Bitcoin gambling. Even those that have legislation in place leave a lot of room for speculation about Bitcoin casinos.

The laws around online gambling and casinos are some of the most confusing in the United States. The federal law does not prohibit real-life casinos and gambling, but it has stringent restrictions on online gambling. Each U.S. states has its discretion to create its own laws around real-life and online gambling as well as Bitcoin gambling. In fact, the states of Utah and Hawaii prohibit all forms of gambling.

Due to this ambiguity, it’s difficult to collectively decide the legality of Bitcoin gambling in the U.S other parts of the world. 

The few countries that have full-fledged regulations for Bitcoin include the United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Italy, Belgium, Greece, and Poland. Also, it goes without saying that countries that have outlawed Bitcoins also do not consider Bitcoin gambling as a legal activity.

Before opting to participate in Bitcoin gambling, you must consider asking two questions

1. Does local law prohibit online betting and casinos?
2. Does the local law ban Bitcoin? 

If the answer to both the questions is “no,” and if there are no specific laws that specifically speak of Bitcoin gambling, chances are, Bitcoin gambling is still not illegal in your place.

How to Assess the Safety of a Bitcoin Gambling Platform?

Once you have confirmed the legality of Bitcoin gambling according to your local laws, it is time to choose a platform — the next step to ensuring a safe Bitcoin gambling experience. 

As already stated, there are more than 200 Bitcoin and altcoin gambling platforms and casinos at present. To choose the one that safest for you, here are a few things you must consider:

• Legal Registration: As a crucial first step, always check if a Bitcoin gambling platform is regulated by a government and if it has a license for operation. You should also consider checking whether or not the platform of your choice is available in your place.
• Provably Fair Games: While it’s not mandatory that all Bitcoin casino games are provably fair, it’s one of the most touted features of Bitcoin gambling. With provably fair games as they are on bitcoin gambling provider FortuneJack — the players can always check whether the results of the game were fair or not. This negates any chances of the owners tampering with the game’s results.
• Anonymity: If you’re a user obsessed with the anonymity Bitcoin provides, you may also want to ensure that the gambling platform you choose does not require ID verification. Many of the best Bitcoin casinos only require email registration
• User Reviews: User reviews are always one of the most legitimate ways to ensure that the Bitcoin gambling platform you’re opting for is of the standard you expect them to be. You must try to read multiple reviews from multiple sources, not leaving much space for ambiguity.

So, Is Bitcoin Gambling Safe?

There’s no one answer to that question. The whole of the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry lacks clear regulations across a major part of the world. And Bitcoin gambling is no exception. So, if you keep aside the obvious risks of losing money when gambling and the volatility of Bitcoin, the safety of Bitcoin gambling depends on how well you research the space before you set foot into it.

Online casino Dunder has confirmed it intends to exit the UK market by the end of October 2020. 

Dunder is operated by Malta-based MT SecureTrade, and powered by the Gaming Innovation Group (GiG) platform. It entered the UK market in 2018, following its success in Scandinavia, pitching itself as a challenger brand. 

All advertising inventory, including media and affiliates, will be terminated on 15 October, and UK logins, engagements, and withdrawals, will be shut down by 30 October. To help customers, the minimum withdrawal has been lowered to just £3 GBP. 

AYO.NEWS says:

As anyone who follows AYO.NEWS will know, the regulatory environment, both in terms of gambling-specific edicts from the UK Gambling Commission, and increasingly erratic rulings from the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), is making life very difficult for operators, despite the potential value of the market.  

And, with plenty of other, rapidly growing and less regulatory restrictive markets out there, it’s not really surprising Dunder has called it a day in the UK. 

Mind you, we can’t help but suspect it was the name that was the kiss of death from the get go in the UK. “Dunder” – a mixture of “dunce” and “under”, yeah, that will work. 

‘AYO.NEWS says’ features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pentagon Digital Limited or its affiliates or associates. 

All original content featured on this site is © Pentagon Digital Limited, 2020.

Competitive gaming platform and tournament organiser FACEIT has launched its first collegiate programs for CS:GO, LoL, and VALORANT. 

With a combined prizepool of $55K USD, the programs represent a further development of the FACEIT Collegiate Division – which recently partnered with Ubisoft on the first collegiate esports league for Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege. 

Covering Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, League of Legends, and VALORANT, the FACEIT Collegiate Leagues will offer competitive opportunities for players of all levels. 

The CS:GO Premier league will offer a $25K prize pool for top tier collegiate players, and $5K at the Contenders level, which will follow a ten week Swiss regular season, followed by a playoff bracket for the top teams. According to FACEIT, around 500,000 North American CS:GO players compete each month on its platform. 

The League of Legends Invitational Series will introduce a unique new format to encourage regional and local rivalries. Teams from across the USA and Canada will be invited to State Invitationals, which form the base of the tournament structure. State and provincial winners will then move onto Regional Invitationals and compete for $5K prizes. Winners of Regionals will then reach the FACEIT Collegiate Finals, playing for $10K. 

The VALORANT Premier League will also be offering top level collegiate players the chance to win $10K, plus there will also be a Contender league for more casual players. 

Discussing the new programs Head of Collegiate Esports at FACEIT, Duran Parsi, said:

“The North American leagues are only the beginning, and we have many more plans involving schools and esports collegiate clubs around the world to help provide resources and a platform to support their own internal events to help grow gaming communities on campus.

“The collegiate scene is an important component for the whole competitive ecosystem and we are looking forward to starting these new programs within three of the most exciting esport circuits in North America.”

AYO.NEWS says:

The collegiate esports scene is the on-ramp for tomorrow’s professionals, so it’s hard to overstate the importance of a healthy competitive ecosystem, and FACEIT are doing a fantastic job with these new programs. 

Staying with FACEIT, just last week the company announced the GoBIG League – a new CS:GO program for Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, in partnership with German esports organisation BIG. 

‘AYO.NEWS says’ features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pentagon Digital Limited or its affiliates or associates. 

All original content featured on this site is © Pentagon Digital Limited, 2020.

The Swiss Federal Casino Commission (ESBK) has been busy again, adding 36 new online gambling domains to its blacklist. 

Gambling sites blacklisted include Estonia-based Coingaming Group’s Sportsbet.io – the official betting partner of English Premier League football club Arsenal, and font-of-shirt sponsor of fellow EPL club Southampton.

Coingaming Group’s bitcasino.io was blocked by Swiss authorities in August. 

Other domains to make the list include Bc.game, Allrightcasinp.com, and Campobet.com 

Swiss telecoms providers are now obligated to block the offending domains. 

AYO.NEWS says:

More good news for VPN providers. Why do they even bother? We’re sure it won’t keep Maarja Pärt, Coingaming Group’s new CEO, awake at night. 

‘AYO.NEWS says’ features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pentagon Digital Limited or its affiliates or associates. 

All original content featured on this site is © Pentagon Digital Limited, 2020.

The Hellenic Gaming Commission has officially launched the application process for new online gaming licenses. 

According to the commission, all legal entities, including shareholders, key executives, manufacturers, technology suppliers, and certification bodies, are now able to submit applications online.

The new Greek system provides for two types of licenses, both of which last seven years. One is for online sports betting and will cost €3M, and the other is for other online games of chance, and costs €2M.

Controversially, license holders will have to pay a very high 35% gross gaming revenue tax, and the new market will be subject to strict rules. Play will be restricted to those aged 21 and above, slots will have a €2 maximum stake, and prizes will be limited to just €5,000 for regular games, and €50,000 for jackpots.  

Draft gambling regulations were submitted to the European Commission in January 2020, following their passage through the Greek parliament in October 2019. 

AYO.NEWS says:

While it’s good to see the Greek regulatory process is moving forward, we’re sure many will argue that such stringent restrictions will make locally-licensed operators uncompetitive with illegal offshore sites. Given the price of licenses and extremely high tax rate, we could see another Sweden in the making here. 

Staying with Greek gambling, in August online sports betting operator Interwetten became naming rights partner and main sponsor of the Greek Super League. 

‘AYO.NEWS says’ features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pentagon Digital Limited or its affiliates or associates. 

All original content featured on this site is © Pentagon Digital Limited, 2020.

Global online slots developer Booongo has announced a partnership with Swedish operator Betsson Group. 

The deal will see Booongo provide Betsson’s players with access to its growing slot portfolio, including popular titles like Dragon Pearls, Great Panda, and Aztec Sun. Betsson will also benefit from access to Booongo’s range of proprietary in-game promotional tools. 

Commenting on the news Commercial Director of Booongo, Sebastian Damian, said:

“Betsson is a global leader within our industry and this new partnership underlines just how far we have come. We are delighted to be working with Betsson as our portfolio goes from strength to strength and look forward to a long and successful relationship.”

While Product Director at Betsson Group, Ciara Nic Liam, added:

“Booongo’s impressive offering of both slot games and promotional tools is something that we are very eager to deliver to our players.

“With a strong roadmap featuring thrilling content to go live in the coming months, we are very pleased with this agreement and look forward to it being a success.”

Booongo is headquartered in Curacao and Taiwan, and has a development office in Ukraine.

Staying with Betsson Group, last month the company entered an agreement with Scientific Games in the United States, covering the provision of the Open Trade platform, and also launched a new production studio in Stockholm. 

All original content featured on this site is © Pentagon Digital Limited, 2020.