Crypto Casinos, online cryptocurrency casinos, like normal casinos, can be highly addictive and can lead to financial ruin but, now you can gamble from your home. The increased anonymity and convenience of cryptocurrency payments make it easier for gamblers to lose track of how much money they are losing. Branching off, with wavering values that the currency represents, it can lead to an even greater loss of money. As the internet increasingly advertises this new form of currency and gambling both issues surrounding it and the popularity of it rise sharply. Just one click of “sign up” and crypto casino owners already start to gain information on the gambler throwing more games to keep them interested and hooked to these money laundering sites.
Influencers are now part of the younger generation’s society; with YouTube and other social media it is easier to hide the cons of internet sensations such as gambling. The combination of looking up to someone and a new easy cash grab being put onto an online app can foster this idea for easy money. Junior Elliot Stevens points out, “People find challenges like that entertaining because the content creators make them look fascinating by click baiting others to watch their own content and that usually involves money.” As these popular creators started moving over to these new forms of entertainment, they also started streaming, the real issue of crypto casinos.
YouTubers and Twitch streamers saw this new thing created near the start of quarantine, crypto currency. With this new online currency investors and prices of this new online currency rose high. Freshman Etta Blumenthal adds, “They don’t have to leave their home to a crowded space” referring to over quarantine and how they can just access it online. As companies realized this, they created their own currencies (such as Bitcoin) and started gambling websites to further profit off gamblers. The reason gambling websites owners used cryptocurrency was because people were already gambling on the currency itself as it was an invested currency with changing values. Now why would people want to gamble twice? Do these double for nothing stakes sound that appealing? Sophomore Julia Bishop says, “If you win then boom and if you lose you want to keep going to get whatever you lost back.” Companies gave money to streamers for advertisements which piqued the interest of other influencers with the new streaming topic to keep viewers coming back. According to Vlad Grindu Internet gaming expert on “Business2community” states “The top casino streamers provide a thrilling way to experience the best games online. As a result, the number of streaming hours watched increased by more than 100percent between 2019 and 2021. This trend continued throughout 2022 as more viewers joined the top channels, like Trainwreckstv, Roshtein, and xQc.” It does not stop there with now online casinos now promising a starting bonus of cryptocurrency so they can start gambling right away. There is no reason for people just not to click the sign-up button.
Terms and services is the next thing that pops up. Why would you need to read it? Let us get to gambling! Oh no! Another thing pops up verifying your age: “when were you born?” to try to restrict certain ages. With the click of a button one can easily bypass the birth dates and just gamble even at an early age. That is why online gambling websites have people verify with legal forms of identification. According to Kevin Collier, a reporter covering cybersecurity, privacy, and technology policy for NBC News about Casino Streamers states, “Many of those websites use little or no effort to make sure those rules are upheld. Some only require an email address for registration, allowing users to send over cryptocurrency to fill their account and begin gambling almost immediately.” This starts gambling addictions because of the unregulated terms.
Now that the account is made all that is left to do is gamble. The starting balance is enough for a couple of days, but it hooks people into these colorful and fun gambling games. Once gamblers run out of money, they start putting in their savings and funds to get what they want. Senior Lyla Cohen says, “That just the development of all these things are going to harm people.” The creation of gambling websites affects societies through people giving their money to websites rather than in-person businesses. BBC News article about Gambling Limits states “Excluding the National Lottery, the gambling industry made £10 billion before tax in years 2021-22 £6.4 billion of that amount came from remote (mostly online) betting, bingo, and casino games. £3.5 billion was made from the land-based sector, also known as non-remote betting at arcades, bingo halls, casinos, and betting shops.” The amount of money being poured into these gambling websites is drastically promoting these websites more causing more people to be affected by these issues.
Overall, the negative effects of these new gambling sensations had taken the world by surprise and caused issues with gamblers who prefer to be online. Easier access, anonymity, and falsifying advertisements caused so many to be addicted. With over 400,000 problemed gamblers in places like Great Britan the question is proposed: Why does this form of spending money even exist?
