Driving a digital future

Nick Hill, Gambling Insider contributor and Executive Director, Premier Consulting, writes about how blockchain can take cashless casinos forward

The days of cash are numbered. The writing has long since been on the wall for physical cash, with online and digital payment technologies marching forward at an ever-increasing pace. As with society as a whole, the gaming industry is already experiencing this shift, both online and offline, with more players than ever choosing to do so via virtual payment methods.

This trend has only accelerated with the pandemic, forcing a move towards digital money in sectors that had previously been slower on the uptake. In many ways, gaming is particularly well positioned to take advantage of this shifting landscape, to embrace the future of payment technology.

Blockchain is at the forefront of this brave new world, paving the way for cashless casinos. With the technical advantages offered by Bitcoin SV, casino and gaming operators of all kinds are poised to benefit from a new, cashless future. Cashless casinos work by assigning players a Bitcoin wallet, pegged to USD or some other fiat currency appropriate to their gaming session.

This immediately reduces the need for handling or transacting in cash on the casino floor, and makes for a more convenient gaming experience for player and operator. Players sign up to the operator’s payment platform, load cash from fiat into their wallet, and immediately exchange those funds for credits on the casino floor. Players can transfer from their individual wallet to table wallets by QR codes, for example, immediately exchanged for chips in play.

Any winnings can be returned directly to the player’s wallet via the same mechanism, or returned in coins or tokens, which can be cashed in for wallet credit, or for cash directly to the player’s bank account instead.

The added bonus here is that the player is also automatically synced into the operator’s loyalty program, providing better data for operators, as well as better access to more tailored perks and benefits for the player themselves.

Tokenisation also allows casinos and gaming operators to more effectively link their online and offline platforms. This enables physical casinos to go cashless, while providing a seamless user experience across the online realm. Players can then bet via both channels, online and offline, to the same effect, earning loyalty points in both formats as they go.

The benefits here for operators are extensive, giving them significantly more insight and control over player behaviour – not to mention the convenience, flexibility and efficiency of a technology that does away with the need for physical cash transactions. Bitcoin SV startup BitBoss is already on the case, with the help of its proprietary ecosystem Bridge. Bridge allows 100% proof of ownership of blockchain funds in gaming settings, without the need for third-party custodians.

This makes it easy for players to transfer money in and out of their Bitcoin SV wallets, while offering similar benefits for operators, including a reduction in the manual side of compliance with KYC/AML procedures. The net result is a more efficient casino experience that harnesses the advantages of new payment technologies. Notably, BitBoss’s solution also makes compliance easier, with blockchain data readily accessible to regulators and government agencies – simply providing access to blockchain records via Bridge allows regulators to see the full audit trail, with 100% transparency and trust.

Casinos and other gaming operators are already turning to blockchain solutions, and in particular those powered by Bitcoin SV, to provide the solutions for our cashless future. With BitBoss and others already advancing the use case, it feels like only a matter of time before more in the industry switch over to a blockchain-first, cashless infrastructure.

Nick Hill

Nick Hill is a seasoned online gaming professional, having held positions as Head of eBusiness in the UK and Ireland at Cable & Wireless Plc., COO at Interactive Gaming Holdings Plc (IGH) and Chief Commercial Offi cer at EveryMatrix. More recently, Nick has been involved in providing consultancy services to a number of businesses on a global basis with an emphasis on Asia. These have led him into new and innovative technologies and verticals including events, processing and utilising tokenisation and blockchain.