For years, cryptocurrency and gambling have been touted as the perfect couple. And talk in both industries continues to increase, despite the lack of regulated markets for gambling with crypto. But what can crypto actually do for the gambling industry, and how can the two move forward in unison?
As It Is
Cryptocurrency and gambling have one of the most fascinating inter-industry dynamics in the world at the mid-point of the 2020s. There is so much potential in the relationship between the two, yet crypto gambling remains unregulated in the vast majority of markets. As Ivan Voitenko, ex GR8 Tech’s group product manager, explains: “It’s not just got huge potential – we are already using cryptocurrencies. We also keep an eye on our competitors, who are crypto-first platforms. We see their success and try not to simply follow them, but to bring some different opportunities to our operators.
“Maybe a traditional operator is trying to acquire new players who use crypto funds because they know they usually make larger deposits, and they make significantly bigger bets. Some operators still see a lot of risks in working with cryptocurrencies, but there are advantages like accessibility and lower transaction fees, which help a lot.
“Financial giants are already fighting for the adoption of cryptocurrencies. It’s worth mentioning that in the UK, fintech company Revolut added cryptocurrency to their portfolio. I saw their report for 2024, and it seemed then like it wasn’t an option to offer cryptocurrencies. But now it's going to be mandatory for gaming, and it's very beneficial for a gaming operator to use and rely on crypto.
“Crypto is very transparent. Anyone can see what happens in a blockchain to see the transactions, what was issued, and what it was created for. Maybe the main issue is about the volatility, but if we are talking about stablecoins, it will help a lot.”
Bigger Deposits, Riskier Bets
“As of today,” Voitenko continues. “Up to 25% of clients players use cryptocurrencies, and we have brands that only offer cryptocurrencies as payment and payout options. These players make deposits that are up to 10 times larger than those of fiat-only players. They are much more tolerant of the risks. They make risky bets, so it is beneficial for operators. In 2025, GR8 Tech has focused on delivering a full crypto platform with multiple cryptocurrencies available to players, while showing operators how to secure their balances with stablecoins.”
Voitenko acknowledges that there is an element of risk when working with crypto. He says: “The main risk is the volatility, but we're using a stablecoin and a real-time conversion to combat this. As a payment provider site, it’s best to convert all crypto to stablecoins like USDC or USDT. If operator brands offer only fiat balances to their players, we can convert all the cryptocurrencies to fiat. It depends on the operators and what they want.
“It's one thing to deal with the volatility risk, but the second risk is about the origin of the funds that can be created in our crypto wallets. In this case, we rely on payment providers so we can offer unique crypto wallets for players’ transactions. If we see suspicious transactions, we freeze the transactions and force players into refunds. This is how to deal with such a kind of fraud and risk. Together with the payment providers, we handle this risk by checking on provider sites and using blockchain analytics tools to scan these wallets and make a decision on what to do with these funds.”
Regulatory challenges
Risk aside, one of the biggest pain points for companies in the iGaming space when it comes to working with crypto, is the fact that it is not regulated in any of the major gambling markets. Asked about this, Voitenko says: “Cryptocurrency and gambling face regulatory challenges due to fragmented rules on classification, AML/KYC, and protection. But we hope that it will start changing now, in 2025. All the time, competitors are shifting to their own crypto platforms. We see how widely it is adopted by some of the biggest players in the business world. Recently, Amazon and Walmart announced that they will introduce their stablecoins. You also have major traditional financial players, such as HSBC and J.P. Morgan, introducing their own stablecoins. Giants like Stripe are also announcing a significant strategic focus on stablecoins and actively engaging with banks to integrate them into everyday banking.
“These are all evangelists of stablecoins, and this cannot be ignored. We are pretty sure there will be closer co-operation between financial regulators and gambling authorities because of this adoption, so it can no longer be left to stand alone and ignored all the time.
“All of this will definitely influence regulators. Clearer frameworks, possibly via the EU’s MiCA (Markets in Crypto-Assets), could build trust, attract traditional players, and open a larger, safer market for iGaming. So let's see what happens, but crypto is what's going on. The only option is to adapt and set the rules for how to play with it. These changes cannot be ignored.”
Voitenko’s colleague Artem Kolodyazhnyy, head of RAF operations, goes even further with his strong belief in the positives of cryptocurrency. He says: “For our industry, it's absolutely brilliant, period. Our team, our company, has worked with this type of currency for a long time. I know in some parts of the industry it is only the start of considering crypto, but it is absolutely brilliant. It can be the simplest solution for operators and providers, but at the same time, it is about avoiding additional risks, and it can help with anti-money laundering.”
Crypto Operators Turned Innovators
Beyond the benefits of blockchain transparency, crypto casinos are actually making waves with other innovations. Industry expert Ozric Vondervelden, co-founder of Greco, says: “Talking personally, not from the perspective of my company - I think the crypto space is making a dent. If you think about the benefits that they're able to offer - instant withdrawals, which aren’t that common in a lot of regulated spaces, and in many cases, automated withdrawals.
“A regular operator is disadvantaged when compared to a system that automates withdrawals and where there's not a person that can stand between a withdrawal and that payment being processed.
“There are reduced verification checks and bureaucracy around an account and quite often transparent game maps as well, which makes for provably fair games. I think regulators have a hard challenge trying to allow the market to compete with these levels of trust and convenience, while also protecting the safety of players at the same time.”
Pragmatic Solutions CEO Ashley Lang echoes Vondervelden’s positive view of crypto operators. He explains: “From a platform perspective, casino operators have introduced a lot of clever innovation, much of which is not limited to the cryptocurrency space. Companies that came into the industry through a crypto-only offering—the extent of their innovation wasn't just in the payment options that they provided, they also looked at the whole product offering and introduced a lot of new innovation beyond payments.
There are player experience innovations that have come from the crypto, such as bespoke games, transactional transparency, community features, and novel bonuses and reward models. That innovation can be attributed to cryptocurrency, even though it has nothing to do with the currency itself. But it's driving the technical demands of fiat operators that are looking to replicate some of these innovations that have come into the industry from these new entrants. Going forward, many of these innovations will become mainstream, so fiat operators are going to have to compete with them. Customers may enjoy some of those other non-payment related experiences that have been introduced by crypto-first operators.
Ashley Lang, the CEO of Pragmatic Solutions
Navigating A Tricky Landscape
However, Lang acknowledges that significant challenges remain because crypto gambling is still unregulated in most markets. He says: “Operators must obviously navigate the regulatory challenges associated with the absence of applicable regulation and the friction in migrating their businesses into regulated markets. If you are an operator with a crypto-first strategy, it's going to afford you all sorts of benefits in terms of frictionless onboarding and payment journeys for your customers. But that's also going to be a frontier for you to navigate when it comes to deploying that business model in regulated markets - the two may not be compatible in many cases.
For the more successful ones, we see a bit of this with Stake.com today, where they're trying to navigate the ability to service markets with local regulations while still maintaining the same business advantages they have in an unregulated world with cryptocurrency and fluid onboarding journeys. Some of the challenges are just going to be how those two worlds come together.
Ashley Lang, the CEO of Pragmatic Solutions
Embracing The Future
Another industry expert who believes the industry needs to embrace cryptocurrency fully is Jeffrey Haas. The MD of ID8 Global Gaming Business Accelerator, formerly of PokerStars and DraftKings, says: “Crypto is like a bogeyman hiding in the corner in the shadows when elsewhere it's becoming increasingly mainstream. You need to see progressive adoption of crypto because it benefits all stakeholders in the ecosystem, and we need to get away from the view of ‘Oh, it's only used by people selling armaments and drugs’ because that's not the case anymore. And there are so many wonderful tools for monitoring its usage over time.”
Haas is certain that crypto gambling will become more commonplace soon, even if the regulators are taking their time to grasp the reality of the situation. He opines: “It won't be available in all markets, but it'll slowly become available in some. Legislators and regulators need to get their heads on straight with respect to consumer demand. It's not only consumer demand, but operator demand. Using cryptocurrency for settlements is much smarter than using fiat. The fact is, it offers very low processing costs, very quick processing times, no chargeback, and perfect transparency on financial flows. If there's concern around KYC or ID verification or source of funds, all of the same checks that can be done for fiat currency can be done for crypto, but faster, for lower cost, and with a greater degree of transparency. I can tell you everywhere a Bitcoin or an Ether has ever been used and by whom, which I can't do with cash, and I can't do with a debit card or a bank transfer. You can follow the money in an extreme level of granularity with crypto that's impossible on fiat.”
Haas cites the closure of the online black market Silk Road in 2013, and how it led to the collapse of early bitcoin exchange Mt.Gox, as a reason some people are still reluctant to embrace cryptocurrencies. He says:
What is the problem? I think the problem is the legacy around Silk Road. Legacy around other sorts of fraud, like Mt.Gox collapsing. We're a decade past that now. Regulators and legislators need to educate themselves around this first, and the operators and the business associations need to be lobbying for this.
Jeffrey Haas, Industry veteran, Managing Director at ID8 Global Gaming Business Accelerator
