Gaming insights Gaming

Quite a bit better

Written by Pai Yao

This article first appeared in the Jan/Feb 2015 issue of World Gaming magazine.

As technology plays an increasingly important role in the gaming industry, enterprising companies such as BetCoin are finding new avenues to explore. Welcome to the world of bitcoin gaming!

It’s closing in on six years now since the very first units of bitcoin currency were released into the digital world and it’s no surprise they are starting to make their presence felt in the online gaming world.

Screenshot from the BetCoin website

Screenshot from the BetCoin website

The growing popularity of digital currencies can be seen around the world, with large corporations such as Microsoft and small businesses alike accepting bitcoins as payment for their products. Bitcoins are easy to purchase and sell on the many bitcoin exchanges worldwide, which from the online gaming industry’s point of view serve as a network of “casino cashiers” allowing global withdrawals in any currency. There are even bitcoin ATMs where you can withdraw cash or bitcoins just as you would at a standard machine, with the first opening in Vancouver, Canada in October 2013!

It was around this time that Massive Luck Investments Ltd – an investment house based in Hong Kong – launched its subsidiary BetCoin Entertainment after financing a research project to understand how the unique aspects of bitcoin could be passed on to online gamers – eliminating many of the drawbacks of both bricks and mortar and online casinos at the same time.

In the bitcoin game that started it all, BetCoin Dice, players can choose between 27 different dice game options with win odds ranging from 97.6563 percent to just 0.0015 percent depending on their appetite for risk. Then, if the lucky number rolled comes up lower than the player’s chosen number, the player wins the relevant amount up to 64,000 times their original bet.

Following the success of BetCoin Dice, BetCoin developed a roulette-like game called BetCoin Circle which features a Return To Player (RTP) of 98.35 percent – about 4 percent better than double zero roulette. Payouts are as high as 22,200 bitcoins – well over US$7 million – on a single spin.

BetCoin has since developed one of the most advanced online gaming sites in the industry, currently featuring 24 games including a range of original games invented by BetCoin, specialist games such as Mahjong and Tiger Dragon as well as a complete collection of traditional casino games. The red and gold theme and 3D graphics are aimed at creating a feeling of luxury and the site can be used on mobile devices for those who like to play while on the move.

Cryptocurrency technology offers players the opportunity to receive a range of unique benefits such as instant deposits and withdrawals, unparalleled security and generous VIP rewards.

“Regardless of where they are, and whether they want to play small or really big, our unique BetCoin platform enables players to enjoy all of the unseen before benefits by using Bitcoin as futuristic casino chips,” the BetCoin team told us.

A huge range of bet sizes is offered, from as low as 1/100th of a US cent up to 888 bitcoins – about US$310,000 – on a single bet. The guys at BetCoin tell us VIP customers can also be given special dispensation to increase the maximum tenfold.

Transactions are instantaneous too, so if you were to transfer US$1 million worth of bitcoins into your account and quickly double-up, those winnings would immediately appear in your account balance and be available for instant withdrawal with a transfer fee of less than a cent.

Key to all of BetCoin’s offerings is what they call “provably fair technology”, which means that the fairness of the outcome of any game is verifiable by the user, with no possible way for the operator to fix the game. In other words, players can check the results of any game or hand immediately afterwards and be provided with proof the result was randomly generated.

The functions that create these results and convert them to readable evidence are irreversible, therefore they cannot be tampered with by the operator.

This addresses the first of two primary concerns players tend to have when using online gaming sites – whether the outcome of games is fixed. Of course, the other great concern surrounds security and BetCoin are on top of this as well.

Because bitcoins are always stored in a bitcoin wallet owned and operated by the user on their own device, be it their phone or computer, only the owner of the wallet can withdraw funds from their BetCoin account, meaning the user could in theory publish their BetCoin username and password on Facebook safe in the knowledge that it is impossible to change the destination of their funds, should anyone log in and try to cash out.

Bitcoin gaming is a very new area of the industry and BetCoin are pioneers of the field, so it’s no surprise they are extremely proud of their product.

“Our operation is quite unique,” they explained. “There are very few gaming sites that accept cryptocurrency – bitcoin being the most important. You won’t find any other operation on a level close to ours.”