The rise and rise of crypto casino

The world of cryptocurrency has witnessed more than its fair share of booms and busts in its short history (Bitcoin was only launched in 2009). As early as 2011, Bitcoin lost 99 percent of its value in a single day. It has lost over 50 percent of its value on six other occasions since then, but it is now considered a safe haven compared to others in the crypto space. In 2022, cryptocurrency exchange FTX was valued at US$18bn when it filed for bankruptcy with markets taking a scythe to the entire sector as a consequence. One difference in 2022 was that crypto had gone increasingly mainstream with consumer-focused advertising and sponsorship. As a consequence a lot more regular “investors” lost a great deal of money.

It is perhaps surprising, given the history, but crypto is back and this time it looks like it’s here to stay. Wiggin’s Chris Elliott  and Marcus Bagnall argued in a recent piece for Lexology that crypto has grown up and gaming regulators ought to look again at legalizing it. Many of the issues a round price volatility, anonymity, fraud and open loops have been effectively de-risked through better regulation and technological advances, they say, continuing: “While crypto must still be treated as a higher AML risk (consistent with Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and Gambling Commission risk ratings), the tools and analytics available can help to significantly mitigate compliance risks – an important factor given that much of AML compliance already operates by reference to a risk-based approach.”

There is another big reason why regulators should look again at crypto: it’s already here, and it’s in danger of eating their lunch. Data from Yield Sec, a technical intelligence platform for online marketplaces and quoted in the Financial Times, suggests crypto casino takings have soared to a point where they are now at a similar scale to more familiar players like Entain and Flutter. Citing a five-fold increase since 2022, Yield Sec estimates that gambling in cryptocurrency generated US$81.4bn GGR last year alone despite crypto casinos being illegal in most jurisdictions. The numbers are disputed and even Stake, the largest market player, only claims GGR of US$4.7bn. Speaking at a Gibraltar conference, Paul Leyland of Regulus Partners said: “We believe the market could double to US$40bn NGR, putting it roughly on par with the global gray market and a third of the size of the domestically regulated market.” Whichever total you accept, the market share being carved out by crypto casino is sizeable.

While crypto gambling sites are blocked almost everywhere, they are readily accessible as gamblers bypass geo-blocks in their home countries to bet on offshore platforms. Use of VPNs is becoming increasingly common (some estimate that 30 percent of Americans and over half of Chinese internet users login via a remote server to mask their location). The internet is a ready source of guidance for those looking to get around the restrictions with tutorials often promoted by influencers who target new users. KYC safeguards can also be circumvented by purchasing crypto casino user accounts on peer-to-peer marketplaces.

Companies that operate crypto casinos base themselves in jurisdictions like Curaçao, Malta, the Isle of Man (more on IoM shortly) and Gibraltar where crypto gambling is legal. The biggest names include Stake, Rollbit and Roobet and all have seen double digit growth in the last few years. Stake, operated by Curaçao-incorporated Medium Rare, claims to account for up to four percent of total transactions on the global bitcoin network, with 25 million users placing 300 billion bets on the platform since its launch in 2017. Its reported US$4.7bn GGR last year was up 80 per cent from 2022. While the likes of Entain, Flutter and Bet365 don’t divulge GGR, Entain reported a Net Gaming Revenue (NGR) of US$6.7bn, Flutter declared revenue of $14bn and Bet365 posted revenue for the year to March 2024 of $4.8bn.

Whilst not directly comparable, Stake’s financials certainly place it in the same ballpark.

For its part, Stake told the FT that it is not a crypto casino saying that over half of the transactions on its platform are conducted in fiat currencies. It says its operations are “fully licensed” and “conducted in full compliance with applicable laws and regulations”. It goes on to affirm that its customers undergo “stringent KYC and AML processes”.

Influencer driven growth

One of the criticisms made against Stake and its peers concerns their use of social media influencers. Often operating outside the reach of advertising regulations, there is nothing to stop these individuals from spreading misleading and unrealistic information concerning odds and the likelihood of winning. In its defence Stake told the FT that what “content creators . . . choose to post is entirely their personal decision and is neither directed nor influenced by Stake”. Does this claim stand up to scrutiny?

Attendees at the IMGL spring conference in Vancouver heard a Ted Talk-style session on influencer marketing where figures were cited as to the kind of sums influencers can command. Matthew Showell, CEO of Snap Call Media shared the story of a very successful video game streamer who goes by the name of TrainwrecksTV or Trainwreck. He started streaming slots content on video platform Twitch in 2021, quickly building up a large following. Within weeks he had 77,000 concurrent viewers racking up over 600,000 hours of combined watch time for slots on his channel per day. He was quickly offered a sponsorship deal by Stake that saw Trainwreck gambling US$ millions almost daily on the offshore crypto casino.

We cannot tell how many customers Trainwreck helped sign up or where they came from, but we get some insight into the value he provided for Stake from the amount he claimed he was paid by the company. In an interview in 2022, Trainwreck revealed that, for an 18-month sponsorship, Stake paid him US$360mn. Eventually, Twitch decided to ban content promoting crypto casinos. In response to this move and other advertising restrictions, Stake’s parent company Easygo launched kick.com, a rival service, as well as a sports TV channel.

The rise of crypto casinos and the influencer marketing contributing to their growth seems to have flown under the radar of regulators, although to be fair to them, there are limits as to what they can do. In the UK and US, gambling on offshore unregulated websites via a VPN is not illegal. Offshore operators, however, may still be committing an offence although enforcement is thorny. While the promotion of illegal gambling is an offence in the UK, Stake could argue that its content is not intended for British audiences placing it outside the reach of the UK Gambling Commission. This seems to have been recognized by the Commission itself who say that while it issued 287 cease and desist notices to providers “accepting and advertising crypto as a deposit method in the UK” in 2024, “the responsibility for enforcing laws in other jurisdictions rests with authorities in those jurisdictions”.

What’s wrong with crypto casino?

It goes without saying that a completely unregulated crypto casino, with no spending limits, affordability checks or responsible gaming measures in place, is an unhealthy place for gamblers. It is particularly dangerous for underage or problem gamblers, but some claim the dangers go much further.

Campaigners, like Deal Me Out CEO Jordan Lea, warn that the cryptocurrency environment brings added hazards. Crypto, whose value is inherently volatile, compounds the risks, they say. When the value of the currency goes up, gamblers are tempted to see this as passive income they can bet with. When it falls, they gamble more to chase their losses.

Matthew Showell says that whilst influencer marketing is extremely effective at bringing in players this carries risks. “Slots content often doesn’t reflect reality and it normalizes risky behavior, with huge bets and long sessions, focusing only on wins while minimizing or ignoring losses. Influencers are gambling with money provided by the casino, but they don’t have an obligation to disclose that to viewers. Some promote sites that don’t have good KYC or other security protocols. And since this content is on social media, it reaches all kinds of people, even in jurisdictions where gambling is supposed to be tightly controlled.”

As well as social media channels, several crypto casinos are using sports sponsorship to target players. It is here that things may be changing, in the UK, at least. The British government announced in 2024 that it intended to take a harder line with white label gambling operations. This process has continued with departure of white label giant TGP Europe in May 2025 just the latest exit from UK market. It has also cast a spotlight on a number of questionable practices involving English Premier League clubs and Asian crypto casinos. TGP is behind several Asian-facing UK Premier League sponsors and is allegedly linked to jailed junket tycoon Alvin Chau. It gave up its licence in the Isle of Man after being told it would have to pay a £3.3m penalty and improve its behaviour if it wanted to continue trading.

TGP provided white-label services to betting brands including major players Stake, shirt sponsor of Everton football club, Roobet (Chelsea) and Rollbit (Leicester City) as well as bj88, SBOTOP, Sportsbet.io, DEBET and W88, all top-flight football shirt sponsors. TGP’s exit leaves the clubs with unlicensed brand logos emblazoned on their shirts and potentially facing fines or personal prosecutions for due diligence failures.15

The TGP case reignites debate around the UK’s white label system, a long-criticized framework that allows license-holding firms to rent out their regulatory permissions to foreign-facing brands. While marketed as a compliant gateway to global expansion, critics have argued that the model invites regulatory arbitrage and facilitates access to the UK market for firms that would not otherwise meet licensing standards.

The 2023 Gambling White Paper identified white labels as a regulatory loophole which Gambling Minister Fiona Twycross has indicated the government intends to close. For now, TGP’s withdrawal has triggered a reputational crisis for the Premier League clubs involved which may force them to re-evaluate the true cost of their partnerships with Asian betting firms.

For operators who rely on third-party licensing to sustain their UK presence, the Gambling Commission’s actions signal it will no longer tolerate business models that outsource responsibility. Any operator pursuing white label deals in the UK can likely now expect greater scrutiny – not only from regulators, but from commercial partners wary of collateral damage.

A way forward, or if you can’t beat them…

The apparently unstoppable surge in crypto casino means lost taxes and unprotected consumers for jurisdictions struggling to retain players in licensed channels. But there is one solution open to them: bring crypto casino onshore. Crypto 2.0 is significantly different from last time around. During and immediately after COVID, sharp rises in various cryptocurrencies drew in amateurs tempted to try and ride the wave. Members of the online “meme stock” community saw crypto as a one-way ticket to the kind of wealth not available to them through conventional investments or jobs. Crypto boomed not for its inherent value or function, but because a fear of missing out led those with money burning a hole in their pockets to buy in.

This time, there are reasons to think cryptocurrency and the function it provides the gambler are likely to be increasingly attractive to a particular demographic. Wiggin’s Elliott and Bagnall quote a 2023 YouGov survey which found that 15 percent of UK gamblers were interested in placing crypto bets with a third of these citing speed of settlement and weekend withdrawals as key reasons. They also point to other benefits including lower fees and lower likelihood of bank declines. This group is predominantly male, aged 18-34 and London-based – a demographic with one of the highest gambling participation rates and one that is much more likely to hold crypto already.

Regulus Partners’ Paul Leyland agrees, predicting that crypto gambling could start to replace regulated real-money gambling among key demographics and in certain geographies withing 3-5 years.

“In ignoring crypto, operators are effectively pushing their highest-value customers into an unregulated ecosystem,” he warned. “And once they go, they don’t just disappear: they help build the scale and capabilities of crypto, making it even more of a threat.”

“The regulated sector’s fiat-only stance is creating a two-tier market: ‘crypto-convenience’ offshore, ‘compliance friction’ onshore,” say the Wiggin pair. They point out that this disparity combined with the ease with which players can access offshore markets means a wholesale rejection of crypto-based payment methods is increasingly unsustainable. Instead, they suggest that “crypto can now realistically be viewed within the same risk-management continuum as other payment systems: requiring appropriate safeguards, tailored controls and regulatory oversight, but not outright prohibition.”

They also point out that, in the UK at least, the regulator is obliged by the Gambling Act to adopt a permissive approach i.e. to find ways to allow different types of gambling rather than restrict them. Meanwhile, the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) Regulation has laid a concrete foundation for companies to operate across borders with defined AML and KYC expectations. This clarity is especially critical in the iGaming world, which is itself under intense regulatory scrutiny. Elsewhere, Asia, and Latin America have begun rolling out licensing frameworks and compliance standards tailored for digital assets.

The UK Gambling Commission last issued guidance in this area in Q1 of 2025 and gave no hint of being ready to embrace the blockchain. There is no doubt that politics will play a part too, but markets with a desire to protect their consumers, defend their tax base and support their licensed gambling industry will face pressure to act before it’s too late.

Chris Elliott will be chairing a panel on cryptocasino at the IMGL autumn conference in Lisbon. Discover details and ticketing at imgl.org/events/imgl-2025-autumn-conference29