Bitcoin gambling legality is something that many first-time crypto bettors are concerned about. The good news is that gambling with bitcoin is perfectly legal in most places, with only a handful of exceptions.
Read on to learn more about bitcoin gambling and its legal status.
Is Bitcoin Legal?
To understand if bitcoin gambling is legal, we first have to look at the legality of bitcoin.
As an alternative global currency that anyone with an internet connection can use, bitcoin has caught the attention of governments in the world. Naturally, with disruptive technology like Bitcoin, there have been different reactions. Some positive, some negative.
Countries that have banned the use of bitcoin include China, Bolivia, Columbia, Ecuador, Indonesia, Turkey, and Egypt.
When Bitcoin adoption grew, some governments saw it as a threat to their national currencies and decided to ban the decentralized digital currency. Reasons for lawmakers’ skepticism against bitcoin include:
Bitcoin offers an increased level of individual financial sovereignty, something that fiat currencies don’t provide. In this case, controlling what citizens do with their money, and how their money flows can be difficult.
Is betting safe with bitcoin?
Bitcoin is decentralized and pseudonymous. This means that it’s hard for a government to know who uses bitcoin and how. In the case of non-custodial cryptocurrency wallets, for instance, you can buy, sell and send bitcoin without having to share any of your personal details. Countries with oppressive governments prefer their citizens not to have this level of financial privacy.
The supply of Bitcoin is finite. When bitcoin was invented, the inventor(s) Satoshi Nakamoto limited the total number of bitcoin that can be mined to 21 million. This was done to reduce inflation, something that the infinite supply of fiat currencies encourages and can be steered by governments.
Conversely, there are also governments that have embraced bitcoin, creating a legal framework for cryptocurrency innovation to thrive.
Some governments view bitcoin as a currency that allows people in marginalized areas that have no access to banks to be able to bank for themselves. This is because bitcoin is decentralized and doesn’t require a financial intermediary, such as a bank, to operate.
The inevitability of cryptocurrency. Eventually, the use of cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoin, will be too large to ignore. Governments that have embraced this are setting up systems to welcome this change.
There are many countries that have embraced bitcoin, with some like El Salvador using it as a legal tender. Other countries that have a positive stand towards bitcoin include the US, Canada, Japan, and most of the European Union.
In the remaining parts of the world, bitcoin remains largely unregulated, which means anyone can use the digital currency but at their own risk.
Is Gambling Legal?
The second important question to ask when looking into bitcoin gambling legality is whether or not gambling is legal where you live.
In many countries, there are provisions for gambling, with laws already in place to regulate the activity. However, due to reasons such as traditional beliefs, morality, and religion, gambling is outright banned in some parts of the world.
With more countries accepting gambling, here is a list of countries where gambling is completely illegal. This will help you know where you are living currently falls into this category:
- United Arab Emirates (UAE)
- North Korea
- Brunei
- Cambodia
- Singapore
- Qatar
- Lebanon
- Cyprus
- Poland
In some of these countries, however, there are no clear laws on online gambling, making it a possibility for the country’s citizens to gamble using bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
The Legal Status of Bitcoin Gambling: It Depends Where You Are!
After looking at the legality of bitcoin and gambling, we can conclude that whether bitcoin gambling is legal or not depends on where you live.
In most countries, bitcoin gambling is perfectly legal. You can buy bitcoin using apps or local exchanges and transfer it to bitcoin online casinos to place your bets in bitcoin.
If you are located in a country where gambling is illegal or where bitcoin is banned, however, you will not be able to legally gamble with bitcoin.
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