The first crypto casinos showed up not long after Bitcoin was published. In fact, bitcoin casino is still a common synonym for crypto casino. These early sites didn’t have much in common with what we see as an online casino today. Often they were simple websites that concentrated on a single game, usually functioning with similar blockchain technology. Ironically, one could say that these sites are more akin to the spirit of crypto casinos than the licensed online casinos of today.
That’s another point though, these early sites operated completely outside the law. It didn’t take long for them to be replaced by online casinos that accepted Bitcoin as a payment method. From there on, crypto casinos evolved to become sites that mainly served players who preferred to use Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
Best Crypto Casinos with Casino Originals
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How to Choose a Crypto Casino
1. Check the License
It’s not the wild west out there anymore. You don’t want a site with no oversight. A license is a must, even if it’s from one of the weaker jurisdictions like Curacao or Anjouan.
2. Check the Original Games
Casino Originals can usually be found as a separate section besides the casino lobby, or in it. View what is available and note anything that is of interest. Make sure that the rest of the casino is to your liking too.
3. Check Your Payment Options
Is it just Bitcoin? What other cryptocurrencies are available? Is FIAT still an option? More importantly, find out about processing times, verification requirements, and possible fees.
4. Check the Reputation
No news is good news. A casino that doesn’t pay its customers quickly makes the headlines. But you might want to look at the smaller details too, like what sort of bonus terms they offer.
Remember to Pick Your Crypto Bonus
Once you have figured all of the above out, and shortlisted your crypto casinos, it’s time to start thinking about a deposit. And as always, it is best to make sure that deposit comes with a bonus. These are no different from what the more mainstream casinos offer, except perhaps for the fact that the crypto casino licenses don’t tend to restrict any sort of bonus offers.
As always, make sure to understand the wagering requirements and to understand what you’re getting for your money. Consider things like welcome offers, cashback, tournaments, networked tournaments, and loyalty clubs when making your choice.
Crypto Casino Common Characteristics
While the absence of a license was characteristic of crypto gambling sites in the past, today, licenses from jurisdictions like Curacao or Anjouan are common. That’s not to say you can’t find Malta Gaming Authority online casinos that allow Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies. It’s to say that those don’t represent the core of crypto casino sites. And they sure don’t offer casino originals.
What’s the difference between these licenses?
To put it simply, Curacao and Anjouan, and other similar licenses, don’t really restrict the casino sites to the same extent as stricter licenses. Only a handful of countries, like USA, are banned entirely, and even these come with loopholes. Individual providers will have their own restrictions too, for example Net Entertainment may decide that their games are not allowed in any other country, than what their own licenses allow.
These jurisdictions are not quite as strict with personal details either, which goes a long way with the crypto community and their want for anonymity. You will still need to supply verification details when making withdrawals, as anti-money laundering regulations require it without exception.
Traditional banking systems aren’t usually offered at all
You can either deposit and withdraw in a variety of cryptocurrencies or use a third-party service to buy cryptocurrencies. Casinos only handle traffic between the casino wallet and your personal crypto wallets. Whilst this means that transactions are usually fast, it also adds in an additional step: it’s up to you how you change your cryptos to FIAT currencies. This is usually the most daunting stepping stone for new users. Luckily, legitimate crypto exchanges are becoming pretty commonplace.
Blockchain and Original Crypto Games
Though these are somewhat hard to define, and often they are also available in the more traditional online casinos, cryptocasinos do tend to offer a more comprehensive selection of them. What you will find at most online casinos are studios like Spribe or SmartSoft Gaming, and what you will find at Crypto Casinos are the site’s own version of games like Crash or Plinko.
This isn’t really an area of casino gaming that is yet well defined or massive in size. But it is growing, and crypto casinos are determining the direction.
Provably Fair Gambling
This is a concept that combined blockchains and casino games. The idea is rather simple: ensure that the outcome of a bet is not affected by anything, and that all results are random and veriable by player. Understand that this only proves that the bet and round played was not tampered. Now, this sounds great, but how does the system work? Saying it is fair doesn’t really prove anything, does it? So, let’s look at the technical spec.
How Provably Fair Actually Works
First of all, this method is specific to games themselves. Although you will find articles claiming otherwise, there is no such thing as a Provably Fair casino. There are only Provably Fair games. Or rather, games that use Provably Fair as a feature.
The core functions include server seed and player seed. These are essentially unique numbers. As a player you can either use a random one, or write down one yourself. There is also a third number which increases with each bet made. The server seed is kept hidden from the player, to ensure the player can’t cheat.
Before the game round is played, the server seed is hashed and given to the player. When the actual bet is palced and the calculation is made, the player seed and the server seed is combined, and along with the third number the result is determined. This uses obviously complex algorithms to ensure random results.
After the bet is done and the round played, the original server seed is revealed to the player. This can be compared to the hashed version. How does this help? Simple, the same seed number always results in the same hash. If these match, you know the result was provably fair.
Is Provably Fair Actually Useful For Crypto Casinos or Players?
Here’s the truth according to me: it’s not really that useful for what it’s seemingly marketed for. No one is going to spend time checking the results. Not on every spin. For the player it would only be useful, if all such results are automatically stored in blockchain (as might be the case with some providers), and can be easily downloaded or saved by the player.
If you then had any suspicion that something isn’t right, you could use a tool to mass check all the results from a given casino or game. But here’s the problem with that: if you’re suspicious about the casino something is already very wrong. That’s why there are licenses. Ultimately, Provably Fair seems like a bit of a gimmick.