FEATURES
ALEX CZAJKOWSKI
WORTH THE INVESTMENT Regular Gambling Insider contributor Alex Czajkowski shares some of his marketing and iGaming expertise on two on-trend topics: a stable alt-coin solely for iGaming; and CRM in the 21st century CHIPS AND TOKENS When you sit down at a table in Vegas, you “money in,” put your cash down and get chips (although sometimes “money plays” and your cash sits in that little circle). You then get chips that reflect your deposit. There are lots of reasons for this. It’s faster and easier for the dealer to deal with for one. But there’s a psychological factor, you’re no longer playing with cash money, they’re “just chips.” And as another “free” drink kicks in (always cheaper to drink at the bar), the distinction between real and play money diminishes. You tip with a five dollar chip for that one-dollar Corona…
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GAMBLINGINSIDER.COM
In iGaming, you “post up” or deposit into your wallet (mainly) and play in your currency. That’s a five-dollar spin. A twenty dollar bet. You are always acutely aware of your spend – although you might not notice how fast it goes. And of course that money goes through myriad hands before hitting your wallet, each hand taking their one, two, eight percent cut. Processing costs are huge for every iGaming site – and the process of processing is getting tougher and tougher. Ah but enter crypto. Maybe. Here, processing costs (and AML, and KYC) can nicely go away. Sometimes. I’ve heard of $20 bets costing $200 in “gas fees” on Ethereum (ETH).
Not sustainable. Bitcoin (BTC) processing is getting more expensive and slower. But what if you could buy chips, tokens, that you could use on any iGaming site that didn’t have these dangling liabilities? What if the industry rallied around an “alt-coin” that was exchangeable for “fiat” (cash money) on multiple “exchanges”. Without the ridiculous volatility of BTC or the expensive processing fees of ETH? Long-time industry veteran Adriaan Brink is following in the footprints of Jez San OBE by embracing the latter’s FUN token. After a controversial ICO (Initial Coin Offering) of his BETR alt-coin, he may be on to something