The global online gambling market will surpass $50 billion in 2018, creating a borderless economy the size of wealthy Luxembourg. You can safely bet that many governments would like to be collecting taxes on this rapidly expanding market, which has doubled in size since 2011.
As long as corruption is high in the bookie-run gambling market, some governments will ban gambling, pushing gamblers into high-risk illegal gambling markets that often shut down overnight and keep players’ winnings, much to their disenchantment with the system. The self-regulating Blockchain is a promising technology to create safer, fairer gambling markets and rid the industry of the corruption that has kept gambling off the legal books.
Illegal Gambling
Fortunately, most jurisdictions do not punish players for gambling illegally, although some unlucky gamblers in strict states such as Singapore and Saudi Arabia have been rounded up by authorities. Nevertheless, the ‘illegal’ status of gambling keeps many from participating in games of chance, online and casino gambling.
The centralized gambling markets rely on third parties to take money, conduct fair play and return your winnings in a timely manner. These third parties known as ‘bookies’ have long been accused of match-fixing. Since the Chicago White Sox through the World Series in 1919, match-fixing has become more widespread and sophisticated.
In 2013, “Europol found over 380 European football matches that were fixed”. In the digital world, game algorithms can easily be tweaked and results falsified. If Lady Luck is on your side and you outsmart the house, a bookie is more likely to look for ways to limit or close your account.
Replacing the Bookie With a Smart Contract
Gambling on the Blockchain replaces the bookie with a smart contract. Players place bets directly with each other on a decentralised peer-to-peer betting system. The transparency and provability of transactions provide regulators with security in the system. Without a bookie to manipulate outcomes in his favour, the fairer system delivers a zero house edge. These innovations would favour the online gambling sector in June when the United States’ Supreme Court will rule on allowing states to legalise sports betting.
The Blockchain is benefitting from favourable legal rulings in other areas. More gamers are winning and buying rewards and gaming assets. Typically, these assets have stayed within the game environment. Blockchain gaming worlds are allowing players to trade game assets outside of the game. A number of US court rulings have deemed these assets non-gaming winnings, and allowed players to legally keep them. In addition to swords and castles, increasingly rewards will be divvied out in crypto tokens, more analogous to cash winnings. The legalising of gambling will uncomplicate the status of these game assets.
LetBet
LetBet pioneers in Blockchain chooses to revolutionize online gambling. LetBet moves gameplay onto a trustless platform. Instead of giving a third party your money, escrow is staked directly from your digital wallet. All actions on the LetBet platform are performed using the “LBT Coin”. Besides its utilitarian value, the coin’s value should increase as the LetBet market grows.
When it comes to speed and data quality, LetBet seeks to distinguish itself among Blockchain gaming platforms. Data is streamed from leading brokers, including Bet365, William Hill and BetFair, to help you find the best odds. LetBet’s proprietary Blockchain processes transactions at a speed of xx versus one minute on average on the Ethereum Blockchain.
The LetBet developer team has put its veritable experience and expertise in creating a smart fork within the Ethereum blockchain which is suitable for not only online gambling but for many other activities as well. This blockchain is a zero chain, meaning that it does not require any transaction fees, which increases its appeal greatly. LetBet has endeavored to revolutionize the online gambling industry with its secure, trustless and fast platform. It invites gaming enthusiasts to get a share of the pie by participating in the ICO.
The LBT Presale has already started on 20th Jan at price from $0.4 and has sold 3 million tokens as of 25th Jan, while ICO begins on February 25th with price from $0.8. Come, be part of the revolution!
