Using cryptocurrency for something other than as an investment is becoming more popular, so you may be wondering whether online casinos in the UK accept cryptocurrency. That’s what we’ll discuss on this page.
The Benefit of Playing at an Online Casino with Cryptocurrency
Remember that most online casinos in the UK won’t let you gamble with cryptocurrency directly. Instead, you’ll select cryptocurrency as a payment method, which, in turn, will be converted into a local currency or platform currency. The amount that you get when you convert the cryptocurrency will depend on the current selling price for the crypto, plus a small fee.
Some online casinos will even let you withdraw your winnings in crypto if you wish. Again, there’ll be a small fee attached to this.
Technically, cryptocurrency casinos, the dedicated ones, will let you sign up anonymously. However, this is a bit of a grey area in British law. Technically, you’re not supposed to be gambling anonymously due to anti-money laundering regulations. However, there are some people who would argue that cryptocurrency isn’t technically real cash, and thus, doesn’t fall under the same laws. However, you’ll need to weigh up the pros and cons yourself on that one.
If you decide to use crypto instead of fiat for your next online gambling session, it’s essential to find a reputable site. Trying to find the best of anything is always a hard task, especially when it comes to competitive markets like gambling. Alexander Reed shares that “Bitcoin casinos have become increasingly popular in the past few years, allowing many operators to avoid the strict regulations required by traditional online casinos.” (source: https://99bitcoins.com/best-bitcoin-casino/), which underscores the importance of finding a reputable site for players new to the world of crypto betting.
Do Online Casinos in the UK Accept Cryptocurrency?
Licensed casinos in the United Kingdom do not accept cryptocurrency. Not directly, at least.
As part of the licensing process in the United Kingdom, the online casino must conform to a variety of regulations. Some of these regulations involve the online casino proving that the cash that they receive does not come from the proceeds of crime. If you’ve ever registered at an online casino, then you’ll know that you’ll need to go through various identity check. These can be quite cumbersome, but the online casino has an obligation to understand who their customer is, and where their cash is coming from. It’s the same with industries such as fine jewellery and others, the large amount of cash involved in transactions mean there has to be regulations.
This is something that is exceedingly tough to do with cryptocurrencies. After all, cryptocurrencies are designed to be anonymous. There is no central body overseeing the use of cryptocurrencies. You can send and receive cryptocurrencies without sharing your name, or any other piece of personal information.
Now, we do want to point out that the UK Gambling Commission does not explicitly rule out using cryptocurrencies at an online casino. In fact, they’ve put together a page saying that they can grant licences to online casinos that receive funding through cryptocurrencies. However, they also state that, at the moment, there is no real way for the online casino to verify the source of funds for cryptocurrencies that is in line with the UKGC’s rules, and thus it is very unlikely that they would ever grant a licence to a company accepting cryptocurrencies from their players.
If you wish to gamble using cryptocurrency at an online casino in the UK (i.e. a licensed UK casino), then you’ll need to convert your cryptocurrency into £s beforehand. You will then gamble using the £s, just like you would normally.
Will This Change?
As with all UKGC regulations, there’s a chance that things could change in the future. The fact that the UK Gambling Commission have put together a page that discusses accepting cryptocurrency indicates that they are open to licensing online casinos that accept cryptocurrencies. They just have to ensure that they can verify the source of funds, as well as consider a few things e.g. how cryptocurrency values fluctuate, scalability of crypto payments, etc.
Online casinos that wish to accept cryptocurrency payments in the UK must also conform to Licence Condition 12.1.1. which states that online gambling companies licensed in the UK should always have an anti-money laundering assessment process in place. Their processes check to ensure that cash flowing into their company is not being laundered, or ultimately being used to finance terrorism. Online gambling companies are expected to review their processes regularly and inform the UKGC when they accept a new payment method.
As we said – there is no reliable way for the gambling company to reliably check the source of funds through cryptocurrencies right now. This means that unless something changes on the end of the UKGC and they relax their rules a little related to anti-money laundering regulations, which we seriously doubt they will do, you can’t expect any British online gambling company to accept cryptocurrency payments directly in the near future. The only way we see things changing is if there becomes a viable method for determining the source of funds when somebody uses crypto, but that’s unlikely, since the whole idea of crypto is to be anonymous.
