Bitcoin to the moon—that’s a popular phrase used in the crypto community to describe the tremendous rise of Bitcoin since its launch in 2009. Another word is HODL, which means buying and holding cryptos until they gain tremendous value.
Although Bitcoin is mainly popular because of its ability to gain (and lose) value quickly, it has real use cases. You can use it to shop online, pay college fees or deposit money at online casinos. In Canada, you can do all these things even though there are no clear laws about Bitcoin and iGaming. Here’s why.
Online Gambling is a Legal Grey Area
The Federal Government of Canada does not license online casinos. In fact, it has no laws that allow or prohibit online gaming. This creates a legal greyness that led to the rise of offshore casinos. According to many lawyers, Canucks break no laws by gambling at foreign casinos.
And as a result, they can join and spend their money at whichever foreign casinos they deem fit. In light of that information, Canadians don’t pay taxes on online casino wins. They keep all their profits whether they win $1000 or $1 million.
With that in mind, Canadian provinces are allowed to regulate gambling at a regional level. Many provinces have laws about online gambling and websites through which you can buy lotto tickets or play slots and card games. British Columbia, Alberta and Quebec all allow slots and card games. However, Saskatchewan and Maritime Provinces only permit lottery games.
Bitcoin is Treated as Property
If you ask many Bitcoin enthusiasts, Bitcoin is a currency like any other. In fact, some people say it’s the future of money and could replace the dollar, Sterling Pound and Yuan. Unfortunately, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), America’s IRS and Britain HM Revenue & Customs don’t think so.
For tax purposes, Canada treats Bitcoin as a commodity. That’s alright, though—it allows the government to recognize crypto instead of ban it. In some countries, Bitcoin is prohibited because governments see it as a threat to the official legal tender.
By being categorized as a commodity, however, Canadians can buy and sell Bitcoin without breaking local laws. They can also use Bitcoin for other purposes, let’s say buying electronics, paying insurance fees or playing slots and poker.
Why Choose Bitcoin Casinos?
There are a number of Canadian Bitcoin casinos that also award you bonuses when you deposit money through BTC. BitStarz, for example, matches your deposit 100% for a maximum of 5 BTC. That means you could get up to $120,000 worth of crypto on a day when BTC is trading at $30,000.
Also, Bitcoin provides a handful of unique benefits that makes it appealing to use for casino payments. Below are some of them:
- BTC Price Gains
Bitcoin is like an asset that gains value. By owning and using it, you have a chance to profit when it gains value. By contrast, Fiat currencies like the Canadian dollar mainly loses value over time due to inflations. Of course, BTC is free from losses.
The currency is alarmingly volatile—it could gain or lose up to 20% of its value overnight due to rumors and unverified news. This is something every Bitcoin enthusiast knows. But they use it nonetheless because the prospects of gaining value are high.
That said, many Bitcoin casinos also accept Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash and more altcoins. You don’t have to stick to the OG of crypto if you prefer to use a smaller but faster growing coin.
- Anonymity
When Bitcoin first came out, most people thought it was a currency to help people make illegal purchases in the dark web. There was also a lot of myths about its anonymity. Today, it’s clear Bitcoin doesn’t give you total anonymity. A determined person can trace your transactions back to you.
Despite that, BTC’s pseudo anonymity is a desirable feature if you care about online safety. With the help of Virtual Private Networks, Bitcoin mixers and secure browsers like Tor, you can increase this anonymity further. Some casinos also allow you to bet without providing personal information, further sealing the chances of an identity breach.
- Fast Payments
Bitcoin is one of the fastest ways to deposit and withdraw money from online casinos. It takes a few minutes or hours for a bitcoin transaction to be processed. Some altcoins are much faster, with payment speeds that dwarf PayPal and credit cards.
At online casinos, payment speed isn’t just a matter of convenience. It can also make the difference between using your winnings sensibly and gambling it away. Additionally, quick payouts make gambling more enjoyable because you don’t have to wait for days to deposit or withdraw cash.
- Bonuses
As we mentioned earlier, some casinos shower you with bonuses if you top up your account balance through crypto. In many cases, these websites match your deposit 100% so that you get 1BTC if you top up 1BTC or five Ethereum coins for 5 Ethereum coins deposited.
Are casino bonuses worth it? The short answer is that it depends. The long answer is that bonuses value in quality and you should read the terms to know whether it’s worth claiming. Logically, you want a bonus through which you can win more crypto.
- Low Costs
In theory, Bitcoin doesn’t have fees. It was designed to eliminate third parties like banks and credit card processors—the source of many banking fees. In practice, every Bitcoin attracts a small fee paid to incentivize Bitcoin miners—the people who confirm BTC transactions to ensure they’re genuine and not duplicated.
All the same, miner’s fees are usually small, except when there’s an unusually long queue of bitcoin payments that need to be verified. Of course, you can always use altcoins—they tend to have much lower or no miner’s fees.
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