Until a few years ago, most people didn’t know about Bitcoin. It was like a fad trending on the Internet among young entrepreneurs. Then banks got Interested. Billionaires started to own it and soon everyone had an idea of how Bitcoin works.
For many people, Bitcoin is a great long-term investment. Owning the coins for several years can increase your fortunes tenfold. However, an investment isn’t all Bitcoin is. It’s also a currency helping casino players in Norway find a way to bet at offshore casinos.
A Little Background
Norway provides online casino games through a monopoly organization: Norsk Tipping. It’s a mobile-friendly website through which Norwegians of legal age can play slots, blackjack, poker, roulette, baccarat and more card games.
The problem: Norsk Tipping isn’t the most exciting online casino in Europe. Sure, it has a few dozen games and pays out consistently. But many operators based outside of Norway have hundreds of games and loads of bonuses for new and existing players.
As a result, a large portion of Norwegian gamblers prefer to bet at offshore casinos. Until around 2017, this was easily possible. Norwegians could bet at offshore casinos because their constitution doesn’t bar them. But then the government declared war on offshore operators on the grounds of increasing its profits from Norsk Tipping.
The first move was to order banks to suspend payments to and from offshore casinos. Then it went after e-wallets and credit card providers. Next, the Norwegian governments ordered local media stations to cease advertising for foreign casinos.
The Solution: Bitcoin Casinos
Bitcoin has been providing payment solutions in countries with heavy government restrictions since its launch. Now, it’s Norway’s turn. All you need is an account at a Bitcoin Casino and some crypto to spend.
The first part is easy—there are numerous BTC operators like 7Bit Casino (Norwegian review) that accept players from the Scandinavian region. The second part can feel complicated for beginners but it’s easy to grasp.
Buying Bitcoin is as simple as buying stuff on eBay. Yes, really—PayPal and Skrill, two popular e-wallets allow you to buy BTC directly on their platforms. So, as long if you have some cash on PayPal or Skrill, you can buy Bitcoin and deposit it to your favorite casino.
To be clear, there are multiple websites through which you can buy bitcoins. Some of them have lower fees than the e-wallets we mentioned above. What’s more, they deal with lots of crypto, meaning you’re not limited to buying and selling Bitcoin alone.
Are Bitcoin Casinos Better than Regular Casinos?
Bitcoin casinos are an excellent solution for the payment restrictions’ issue Norwegians gamblers are facing. But are they any better than operators that deal with fiat currencies? They are and these are the reasons why:
Bitcoin is Safe from Government Regulations
Bitcoin might not be a legal tender in Norway and many countries in the world. But it also can’t be controlled by these governments. They can’t put a limit to how many Bitcoins can be mined in a year. They can’t control who owns and how they use it.
The benefit is that Norwegians can use Bitcoin the way they want, even if that means spending it all at online casinos. And because their government doesn’t control crypto, they will never be restricted from using crypto casinos.
Crypto Gains Value
2021 is turning out to be a great year for Bitcoin. It’s been gaining value nearly every day. And even when it plummets, it bounces back. This means Norwegian BTC casino players can count on their bankroll to increase even without winning at slots.
All they need is to HODL (hold) their coins for a while. And who knows? One thousand euros today could turn into €1200 after a couple of days. And that means more money to wager with and potentially more profits if you increase your stakes and wins.
Of course, we can’t talk about Bitcoin’s ability to increase value without mentioning that it plummets often. As a solution, keep up with BTC prices and convert your coins to cash if you have no plans to weather the storms of short-term price fluctuations.
No Intermediaries
One attractive quality of Bitcoin is that it eliminates intermediaries like banks. And in doing so, it eliminates the hefty fees some banks, credit cards and e-wallets charge before processing payments to casinos. Unfortunately, Bitcoin isn’t free of charges.
For a bitcoin transaction to be process, it has to be verified by Bitcoin miners. To incentivize them and encourage more people to become BTC miners, a small fee is charged from every BTC transaction and paid to the miners. That said, Bitcoin transactions are mostly cheap, usually costing less than 1% of your payments.
Anonymity
So, you don’t want anyone to know how much you bet on online slots? Use crypto for casino payments can help. Unless you give out your passwords, no one can determine the exact amount of money in your BTC wallet and how much you spend from time to time.
Bitcoin also provides anonymity in the sense that you don’t have to provide your name and address during crypto-crypto payments. And if you use privacy-oriented coins like Monero, there’s a chance you could make payments with no possibility of being traced.
Of course, that’s not an endorsement for using Bitcoin for illegal purchases. There are far too many ways to trace a transaction back to you.
Bonuses
When you think about it, you can get a lot more bonuses from Bitcoin casinos compared to regular websites. On many websites, you’re welcomed with a 100% bonus worth up to €1000. With BTC casinos, they match your bonus in crypto—up to 5BTC.
Considering one Bitcoin is worth nearly $40,000 at the time of writing, you could claim up to $200,000 for five BTC. Of course, you would need to be a high roller to deposit and spend $200,000 at a casino. All the same, it’s possible. The best casinos give you BTC bonuses regularly. But already read the terms to ensure it’s a bonus worth taking.
