Cryptocurrencies have been around for a while – Bitcoin first started gaining mainstream traction in the early 10s, and even before that IT circles have been buzzing about crypto all the way back since the 80s. However, it feels like it was only a few years ago when crypto truly took off, the slowly but surely building steam finally erupting into a global phenomenon. In 2021, everyone knows what crypto is, if only tangentially, and many of us have probably experienced that odd moment of seeing an otherwise technically illiterate relative grumble about crypto prices.
Despite their immense popularity, however, crypto remains a novelty in the eyes of many. No one buys groceries with Bitcoin, no one pays their housekeeper in XRP, and no one deposits at online casinos with Dogecoin… Right? Well, while we can’t speak about the first two points, we do have an audience of thousands of gamblers that visit us every single day. So we decided to ask our German audience plainly: Have you ever played at a crypto casino?
The answers were a bit surprising, even to us! We honestly didn’t expect more than 5%, at most 10%, to reply that they have. After all, crypto casinos are even more niche, and many of them only accept crypto – meaning that you usually can’t sign up at a regular online casino and then deposit with crypto down the line. But despite that, almost 28% of those surveyed claim they’ve played at a crypto casino before. Which may not sound like much, but it’s a significant number – more than one in four German gamblers has made a deposit at an online casino using crypto. The number is comparable to mobile casino players from just a few years ago, and as we now know most gamblers prefer to play casino games on their phones or tablets. If the same correlation persists, crypto gambling is looking at a very bright future indeed.
Why Crypto Casinos are Growing in Popularity
After this revelation, we simply had to know more! So the next logical question for those who said they played at a crypto casino was why they chose that over a regular casino that accepts traditional currency. Was this simply an indulgence of curiosity, or do players actually see value in crypto as a way to deposit at online casinos? The most popular response is also one that, to us, encapsulates one of the biggest advantages that crypto has over traditional currency. Over 37% of crypto players claim the anonymity of the transactions is what made them switch. “Anonymous” may not be the exactly correct word, because licenced crypto casinos still require proper identification in accordance with money laundering laws, but besides that, there is no way for anyone to tell whether you’ve deposited at a casino or not. That’s a huge advantage for players that don’t want banks and other institutions to know what they’ve spent their money on. In an age where everything you do is monitored, sold and used against you in some way, reclaiming a little bit of privacy is an advantage many gamblers simply can’t resist.
Besides that, the #2 reason why people chose to try out crypto is simply because they believe in it. Nearly 30% are convinced that crypto transactions are the future, or at the very least that they’re just as valid as transactions using traditional currency. Which is a perfectly fair response, some people like to deposit in pounds, others in euro, others still in dollars. Why not crypto? Especially given that most cryptos only rise in value, meaning that it’s actually possible to withdraw more than you deposited even if you don’t win a thing. There were various other reasons cited within the survey – 15% of gamblers claim that crypto casinos have a bigger game variety, and 11% enjoy the instant deposits and withdrawals that some currencies offer. But the results are clear in that most people deposit with crypto because they see it as equal to, or even better than, traditional currencies.
Of course, we also had to ask our crypto gamblers what currency exactly they deposited with. It should come as no surprise to anyone that Bitcoin was the preferred choice of nearly 67% of gamblers – despite being inferior to other currencies in many ways (such as high volatility and extremely low transaction speed), it continues to remain the most valuable currency by far, not to mention the most popular. There’s a reason why many crypto casinos advertise themselves as “ Bitcoin casinos ” despite accepting other currencies, after all! The very distant #2 was Ethereum , which has won over 13% of gamblers. All remaining cryptos combined make up the remaining 20% (with a lead by Litecoin at a little over 8%), which should be understandable. As much as we enjoy the fast transactions of Litecoin or the funny memes that came out of Dogecoin, there’s just no denying the broad appeal of Bitcoin.
Why Many Prefer Traditional Currencies
Despite crypto’s impressive popularity, there still remains the fact that a grand majority of gamblers still prefer to stick with pounds and euro. Naturally, we had to ask why, and this time, the results weren’t particularly surprising, given that most people continue to not be particularly well-versed in crypto. Sure, everyone knows what Bitcoin is, but few know (or care to know) where to buy it or even how it works. This ignorance extends to gamblers as well, with about 69% admitting to not knowing much about crypto. With that aside, a further 27% claim that traditional currencies work just fine for them, which brings us to a further revelation: most people don’t really need to use crypto for their gambling.
Sure, crypto deposits do have their benefits – sometimes very clear and objective ones. But most people who gamble, even most people who visit sites like Casino.Online, aren’t super dedicated, high-rolling gamblers, but more casual fans. For most players, traditional currencies still work just fine, even in the presence of better alternatives. Maybe in the future, as the number of crypto casinos do, so would the number of crypto gamblers out of sheer convenience. If depositing with crypto is just as easy and convenient as depositing with a card or PayPal, then why not? Whether that will happen or not is anyone’s guess, but personally, we’re optimistic that crypto gambling will soon become just as common as mobile gambling is today!