The internet has breathed new life into casinos and what the concept generally entails. Gambling has always been correlated with large casino buildings with slot machines and large tables surrounded by groups of well-dressed people. But thanks to the internet, gambling saw new horizons with the advent of online casinos at the end of the millennium.
What started out as an alternative to the already well-established casino industry became a self-sustaining industry on its own. The online gambling industry currently is worth over 30 billion dollars. The reason behind the sudden surge in popularity is the fact the online casinos provide flexibility, portability and anonymity. These feats made a huge impact on the general public, allowing the public to place their money on the tables and not on flights, fuel, accommodation, etc. Thus, online casinos have garnered a significant and loyal market which will continue to grow in the years to come.
It should be pointed out here, that in certain countries where online gambling is not legislated, such as US, Australia and others, online casinos struggled with traditional modes of payment such as credit cards and popular ewallets.
However, cryptocurrencies acted as a suitable alternative to conventional payment methods because of their flexibility in use and efficient transactional methods. Also, digital currencies had lower transactional fees and some provided utmost anonymity to its users.
The applicability of digital currencies in online casinos was recognized by Satoshi Dice, the first online casino to deal in digital currency. Satoshi Dice quickly gained fame in the gambling community and accumulated a decent amount of net worth in under a year (eventually getting sold for more than $11 million). Soon other casinos followed it foot steps and started incorporating cryptocurrencies into their business models.
Best Ethereum Casino Sites 2017
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Ether Gambling
Today there are hundreds bitcoin online. The recent surge of Ethereum, with its unique advantages, started to attract both, casino operators and players.
Ether is gaining more and more attention as it continues to appreciate in value with each passing day. It is currently the biggest cryptocurrency after Bitcoins, according to market cap share. Many believe that soon it will take over Bitcoins as the leading cryptocurrency in the world.
With faster transactions, lower fees, not to mention smart contracts and Bitcoin scalling debate, it’s really not a surprise that more and more casinos join the Ethereum revolution.
Ethereum Casino Types
There are mainly two types of Ether casinos.
1. Online Casinos with Ether Deposits and Withdrawals
Online casinos that are not operating on the Ethereum blockchain allow users to gamble with Ether through the standard method of online deposits and withdrawals. Most online casinos were already operational when Ether first started gaining momentum as a big player in the online currency domain. So, the casinos tailored their banking modes to accept Ethers as fully revamping their sites to run on the Ethereum network wasn’t feasible for most casinos. Thus, these casinos offer the user the option to transfer their funds to another account on the network that is controlled by the casino. After the transfer of funds Ethers are made available to the user for gambling. These transactions are generally fast and don’t take much time.
2. Ethereum Smart Contract Casinos
There are casinos that allow the user to play without any registrations or online deposits. These sites run on the Ethereum blockchain itself and are ideal for gambling. They are very fast as they allow the player to make bets directly from the wallet. Smart Contracts govern the game and ensure complete anonymity and fairness as the game is not hosted on some third-party server rather. As soon as the game is complete the Smart Contract delivers the winnings.
This is considered to be the future of online gambling as Ethereum casinos are attracting more player as they provide anonymity, flexibility and provably fair games.
Advantages of Ethereum Casinos
It has already been established that Ethereum casinos provide unique value to the online gambling industry. Given below are key advantages of Ethereum Casinos.
- Ethereum uses a different “hashing algorithm” to process data from other cryptocurrencies, which allows new blocks to be generated in under 15 seconds on the Ethereum network. This envisages that Ether Casinos can process transactions faster than any other digital currency.
- The use of Smart Contracts allows Ether games to be fair, as they are hosted on decentralized applications making it impossible for any player to cheat and securing the gaming process for each user.
Disadvantages of Ethereum Casinos
Although Ethereum Casinos generally provide great value to players but the fact remains that the number of Ethereum casinos is very limited and it’ll take time before Ethereum casinos can become ubiquitous. Hence, Ethereum casinos are not easy to find.
Also, the value of Ether remains highly volatile as it keeps rising day by day. Although, the trend appears to be a constant increase in its value but the possibility of a sudden depression is omni-present as Ether still hasn’t stabilized like Bitcoin.
This article was meant to shed light on Ether as the rising digital currency in the online gambling scene and Ethereum casinos as the future of the casino industry. Ethereum casinos are likely to increase in number on account of their Smart Contracts and the feats they entail. Thus, it is highly recommended that gamblers shift their focus towards Ether and Ethereum casinos as the new big things in the online gambling scene.