The online gambling industry has constantly evolved over the years with steady advancements in almost every aspect. We’ve seen numerous innovations and changes over the years, with most enhancing the user experience and bringing gaming variety. Still, nothing came close to the explosion of crypto-oriented casinos. In this article, we want to take a look at whether these newly arriving platforms will face certain changes with the steady increase of regulatory compliance, and if those changes will have a dramatic impact on all the advantages these environments can offer.
The Role of Regulatory Compliance
For casino brands to be legitimized, they need to be approved and licensed by certain regulatory bodies under gambling laws in specific regions they oversee. This requires platforms to comply with several requirements that each have a purpose in standardizing how everything operates, which results in an environment being monitored and looked over.
One of the main requirements revolves around players being introduced to KYC or Know Your Customer verification procedures. This means that all users need to submit their documents to verify their identity. By doing this, the casino can effectively mitigate the chances of underage individuals trying to create accounts and start playing.
Taking into consideration that this hobby certainly has potential risks, it’s immensely important that only adults can have access to online casinos. KYC procedures also play an important role in imposing AML or Anti-money laundering policies, as all regulatory bodies adamantly work on stopping the exploitation of money through gambling platforms.
Furthermore, regulatory compliance also includes the implementation of various systems that guarantee the fairness of games being played, which gives punters a level of trust in the brand. This is usually achieved through the RNG system which serves the purpose of making everything truly random.
Of course, getting licensed also means that operators need to declare their earnings, making them obligated to proper taxation unless they are willing to risk being legally prosecuted. Generally speaking, spending time in these types of environments is thoroughly recommended, as the integrity of your gameplay and security will be immensely better in comparison to unregulated platforms.
Be that as it may, the more prevalent introduction of regulatory compliance to crypto casinos may also have some drawbacks. Let’s take a look at how it can affect some of the most notable features they’ve become popular with.
Potential Loss of Anonymity
One of the biggest advantages people loved about crypto gambling was the fact that it involved anonymity for users. In traditional casinos where players could only use traditional payment methods, there wasn’t any way of keeping your identity hidden from the brand.
Everyone has credit cards and electronic wallets associated with their details, which makes it inevitable for you to leave out your information on the internet. This can potentially be hazardous in case of data breaches in casinos you are playing. While most regulated brands have strict security measures and protocols, malicious cyber attacks aren’t so uncommon.
Unfortunately, we’ve seen several instances where user data was compromised even with robust systems dedicated to protecting the traffic. This can result in serious issues such as identity theft and stealing. Crypto gambling successfully eliminated this threat by allowing punters to anonymously deposit and withdraw money from their casino balances.
As regulatory compliance becomes much more prevalent, the anonymity advantage that players once had will be lost, since KYC procedures are the biggest priority for legislative bodies. Even though this will prevent many other issues, it’s rather unfortunate to see that soon enough there won’t be any way to eliminate the risk of having your identity jeopardized when gambling.
In a perfect future, we may see some sort of rules being introduced that benefit the players in this regard while also maintaining regulatory compliance. It would be a shame that one of the most prominent advantages of crypto platforms becomes permanently unavailable to users.
Leaving payment information in many different places online holds a lot of risks, and being able to keep anonymity will bring a lot of players peace of mind, especially those who love trying out new platforms regularly.
The Impact on Accessibility
Apart from allowing you to be fully anonymous, crypto environments also provide accessibility for thousands of players all across the globe. There is a huge issue with many punters not being able to gamble from the country they currently reside in due to laws and regulations.
This limited their ability to explore, discover, and play in all the exciting casinos in the industry. Since cryptocurrencies provided players with the ability to be anonymous, this allowed them to join in on the fun. Of course, this won’t be possible with regulatory compliance being introduced.
Brands won’t be able to allow those punters to their platform once they know which country or region they are from since it would mean that the operator is providing gambling in locations where that is technically illegal. This isn’t the only way that accessibility will be affected, though.
With regulations, players can expect to see certain cryptocurrencies being prohibited for many reasons. They will also be allowed to use only a handful of accepted and licensed payment processors. While this will certainly ensure that there is no money laundering involved, it greatly limits existing possibilities.
Bigger Costs
While most of the changes that regulatory bodies bring revolve around players, it’s also important to mention that it also introduces additional costs for brands as well. Acquiring and holding a license to operate a casino isn’t cheap, as there is a plethora of monitoring and licensing fees involved.
This may result in many smaller platforms not being able to keep up with all the expenses, which will ultimately lead to their closure. We certainly wouldn’t like to see that happening, but it’s a very possible outcome for many, just like it was with the introduction of licensing in traditional online casinos back in the day.
Apart from existing platforms closing, this can also incentivize other brands to not consider implementing the usage of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin in their environments, as it might not seem profitable. This is unfortunately something that can’t be avoided, as regulatory bodies will always demand operational costs from the operators.
Transaction Times and Withdrawal Limits
Last but not least, it’s worth mentioning that regulations will impose many limitations on transactions in casinos. Besides allowing only certain payment processors and cryptocurrencies, it also may impact transaction times, especially withdrawals. While it will still be faster in comparison to traditional banking options, the KYC procedures can prolong the process.
A more serious change will affect the withdrawal and deposit limits, though. Before, crypto platforms were famous for allowing their users to both deposit and cash out much larger amounts than they would be able to in traditional casinos. This won’t be the case with regulatory compliance, as all legislative bodies have capped limits for all types of transactions.
While we are aware that these changes won’t affect a lot of casual players, there is a decent number of high rollers who will certainly be disappointed with such limitations. There are a lot of people out there who exclusively play on crypto platforms just for this reason alone, and taking that away from them will be unfortunate.
What About Bonuses and Promotions?
If you’ve ever spent time in a crypto-only casino, then you must’ve noticed that they usually have really interesting bonuses and promotions to participate in, as well as very innovative loyalty programs and gamified elements. This is because the operators could design these promotions in the way they wanted for the players without any external supervision.
Unfortunately, licensing and regulations have incredibly strict rules when it comes to promotional plans and packages. This means that brands can only devise and offer bonuses by these rules, which can potentially limit their creativity and result in players having a less interesting experience.
Everyone loves to enhance their gameplay with extra free spins or with cashback, but it’s much more engaging and thrilling when we see brands introducing something entirely new that revolutionizes the way players are rewarded for their arrival or loyalty. We just hope this doesn’t go away as legitimate and licensed crypto casinos become a regular occurrence.
Conclusion: Regulatory Compliance is Necessary
Taking everything into account, the future of crypto casinos will without a doubt be affected by regulatory compliance. While all of these implementations might not make the platforms better in ways that we’ve talked about, it’s still crucial that all of us gamble in legitimate and licensed gambling environments.
At the end of the day, the regulatory bodies can bring a lot more benefits for the players. Even though people might not be able to utilize the prior advantages of crypto platforms, they will be a lot safer. Punters won’t have to worry about games being rigged, there will be better security measures, and there won’t be any chances of them being exploited by brands in a slimy way. We would always recommend that you play in regulated environments, even if their unregulated counterparts might seem more tempting initially.
