Enhanced technological innovations are transforming the gambling landscape. Social media games are blurring boundaries between gambling and gaming. Accounting is the cornerstone of the gambling industry. While widespread adoption of data science and machine learning in gambling industry yet thought to be used as a methodology to keep the players engaged in playing, the researches and thoughts about usage of Blockchain in the gambling industry are quite straightforward. Blockchain is available since the year 2008, and since then it has been tried to be used for many different industries. There are definite reasons why Blockchain and Cryptocurrency are attractable to the gambling industry. The early adopters are now the trendsetters.
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How does Blockchain work? After initiating the process of generating a record (block), it is verified and stored by thousands to millions of computers on the network. The verified block is cryptographically encrypted and attached to a chain of data set (blockchain). This makes unique data sets with a traceable history. Blockchains are secure, up-to-date directories for reliably documenting the digital transactions.
Blockchain is Part of Digitalization of Gambling Industry
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Blockchain-based gambling is not a new type of gambling. The obvious application of Blockchain is accepting any cryptocurrency as a method of payment. The Blockchain is a distributed ledger visible to all in the system. By integrating Blockchain, online casinos definitely will gain a transparent system to increase their reputation. The key features of Blockchain are:
- Immutability
- Transparency
- Decentralization
- Data security and safety
One of the biggest problem that the gambling industry issues with transparency. With the help of Blockchain, certain details such as frequencies of winning, payouts and results can be made more transparent.
One of the most well-known and promising applications of blockchains is smart contracts. By integrating with a Docker container, the developers can operate mini-blockchain within a sandbox and test various middleware tools which will be launched today or tomorrow. Also, the industry under question can help in the control of identity to the public. Blockchain does not reveal the identification in an easily understandable manner.
Blockchain is already in use in the financial industry
Blockchain application platforms already exist for the financial industry. IT is intended to bring a transparent, secure and verifiable business model into trade, especially when it involves the financial industry. A new decentralized technology stack, along with a growing ecosystem can better perform some of the tasks: faster completion for business operations, more secure transaction handling, cost reduction, and closer regulatory orientation. The integration with existing systems, which has been identified as a disadvantage, is still a challenge, but it is not insurmountable and can be easily justified with the benefits expected from the blockchain for both IT and business.
Presently, we are dependent on refer-review based system. A player almost ways need to rely on the gambling review sites before investing his/her money, such as 888casino. With applications based on the blockchain principle, new developments are being added that will gradually reduce the disadvantages. The cryptocurrency Ethereum is also based on the blockchain principle of decentralized computing power and can be seen as a kind of bridge between blockchain and the gambling industry.
Decentralized Identity and Self Sovereign Identity (SSI)
The solutions of Digital identity offers today on the Internet are not very effective: a separate login almost always a need for each service. This process invites sharing personal data and ultimately ends up in central data silos of the various companies. As a user, we have no control over our data because of the present methodology of the login system of the web systems. This also invites redundant data. The validity of allegations is difficult to verify and claims in lottery demand manual verification.
A sovereign identity is granular enough to determine who gets what information. It is decentralized without a central authority. This selective sharing provides the guarantee of a high level of privacy and sovereignty. The Blockchain can use a decentralized PKI infrastructure (public key infrastructure) and is thus the foundation for decentralized identity.
Lottery is World-Wide Popular
The lottery industry itself shares near 30% of the entire global gambling revenue. Most of the nations on this earth with stable economics has a lottery. Wikipedia has a detailed list of it.
Purchasing a lottery ticket (in the countries where it is a physical ticket) is still insecure until the cash is in hand. The winning lottery ticket is not safely registered against the purchaser. The process of arranging a land-based lottery ticket is extremely complex work. There are already some solutions offering Blockchain lottery based on Ethereum smart contracts.
The Final Words
Accepting Bitcoin for online gambling is still prohibited in some jurisdictions mainly due to the concerns about the legitimacy of the gambling sites. Blockchain and cryptocurrency reduce the charges associated with traditional transactions when directly compared with the regulated operators. The system often forces to use the well-established Know Your Customer (KYC) method to verify and identify the customer to avoid unrelated matters such as tax invasion. Blockchain was developed specifically for Bitcoin and unfortunately it is still seen synonymous by the non-technical peoples. Definitely, at present, Blockchain has some social challenges to solve.
However, the experts related to the software industry and gambling forecast that blockchain will help to make gambling more acceptable by wide-spread usage of blockchain-based betting platforms for the reasons we outlined above – transparency, security, cryptocurrency, and identity.
