Think about how much the average Las Vegas casino knows about the people who walk through their doors. When you enter a Vegas casino, you are already on camera, your face recorded and monitored by security teams. More security watches as you move through the casino. When you purchase chips or make any other financial transaction, parts of your identity are recorded, especially if you use an ATM or any other connection to modern banking systems. If you are staying at the hotel associated with the casino, they also know almost all of the details about who you are, where you came from, and your likes and preferences. If you win big, even if you had used only cash, the casino will vacuum up still more details to verify your identity and report your winnings when it pays out the cash.
For many people, that level of invasive tracking is deeply at odds with their desire to gamble. So, what can you do if you want to gamble but don’t want your personal data flagged across the internet as belonging to someone who gambles?
That’s where decentralizing gambling comes into play. Decentralized casinos that make use of cryptocurrencies offer the excitement and the winnings of gambling with the privacy risks associated with in-person gaming and more traditional online gambling platforms.
In this article, we’ll take a look at the truth about anonymity in decentralized gaming and why choosing decentralized gambling sites for your gaming needs may be the right choice for you.
The Risks of Digital Privacy
When you sign up for an account at most websites, including traditional online gaming sites, you have to provide a decent amount of personal information in order to create an account. In business terms, this is called "Know Your Customer" or KYC information, and it is used to verify that that person who is making the account is who they say they are. This information typically includes one’s name, address, a telephone number or email address, and payment details. Having this information floating around the internet is an obvious privacy risk, especially with the rise of hacking and phishing. A data breach could easily put your information at risk.
However, it has become increasingly difficult to opt out of websites’ attempts to vacuum up our data and track us across the internet. From KYC to tracking cookies, many sites are one-stop-shops for your data. A decentralized crypto casino, on the other hand, is much more secure because your personal data doesn’t cross over into the casino. The only connection between you and the casino is via your crypto wallet, so the casino many never know you beyond your crypto wallet. Your personal financial details remain safe and secure with you, providing an additional firewall of privacy between you and the casino.
How to Keep Your Gambling Private
We are not here to offer any judgments about how people choose to entertain themselves, but we would be remiss if we didn’t mention that there is still a certain stigma around gambling. While it is not explicitly mentioned in the Bible, traditionally, Christians have held that gambling is a form of coveting, which the Apostle Paul warned was the equivalent of idolatry (Colossians 3:5). Since Jesus warned that one cannot serve both God and money (Matthew 6:24), gambling has often been seen as sinful. Think, for instance, about dice being called the Devil’s Bones. While gambling is much more acceptable in our culture today than it was even thirty years ago, when many governments still banned nearly all forms of gambling, the stigma surrounding gambling still remains a threat in many places.
There are many good reasons that people who enjoy gambling might not want the world to know it’s their preferred form of entertainment. Even if you are gambling responsibly, you could still suffer judgment or damage to your reputation if the wrong people find out. This is especially true for people who are in professional positions. For instance, imagine that you have a public-facing job at a major corporation, perhaps even a bank. Or imagine that you are a public figure running for office. If it got out that you enjoyed online gambling, you could be subject to negative media attention, reputational or career damage, and (in some jurisdictions) potential legal repercussions. Anonymity can protect you from these consequences while preserving your right to enjoy gambling.
Protecting Your Financial Security
As we mentioned above, many people are uncomfortable with the amount of financial information that you are required to provide at many traditional gaming sites. This includes not just your name, but your bank or credit card information, and sometimes phone or email details. Many casinos will try to make customers feel safer through the use of two-factor authentication, but that only protects part of a given transaction. It’s often much safer to keep your financial details out of the hands of the casinos in the first place. This way you won’t be vulnerable to cyber attacks or hacking.
When you choose to go anonymous by using a decentralized crypto casino, your personal and financial data stay in your hands can’t be compromised through an attack on the casino you use.
The better choice for gamblers concerned about privacy is to use cryptocurrency. This allows for anonymous transactions because you can make deposits and withdrawals without having to go through the traditional banking system. These transactions are difficult to trace and offer much greater privacy protection to protect you and your information from prying eyes and malicious actors.
Avoiding Government Oversight
Anonymity in online casinos also protects you from the prying eyes of governments here at home and around the world. In many locations, gambling is illegal, and decentralized gambling sites are the only safe way to gamble without the government taking notice and taking action. When you use a decentralized casino and a VPN, you can access international gaming platforms that operate where gambling is legal and thus circumvent local bans and/or geoblocking meant to enforce gambling prohibitions in specific locations. Similarly, crypto gaming’s secrecy means that the government can’t record each transaction in order to tax it. While we cannot advise you to avoid your tax obligations, we can report that these private transactions are so secret that the onus is on gamers to faithfully report their earnings.
Gambling Anonymously Feels Safer
There is no price we can put on the feeling of safety and security you get from knowing that your data is protected to the best of your ability. When you gamble, you ride an emotional roller coaster of highs and lows. The act of gambling primarily an emotional experience. But it is more difficult to enjoy the highs or recover from the lows when you are primarily focused on whether your data is safe and whether you will be exposed for gambling in these casinos. The anonymity and privacy of decentralized casinos allow you to gamble out of the spotlight and without the pressure you might feel when you are looking over your shoulder at every turn. Only you will know how much you win or lose, and it’s hard to put a value on how good that feels.
Conclusion: The Future of Privacy in Decentralized Gambling
As the crypto industry becomes increasingly popular and even more mainstream, there is little doubt that there will be increasing demand for crypto gambling sites. And as governments become ever more intrusive, there is little doubt that players will demand anonymous gaming options. Once players realize there is a way to gamble while keeping their choice of entertainment secret, they rarely go back to the riskier, more exposed ways of gambling online. The truth is that decentralized gambling is currently the safest way to protect your privacy while wagering and the best way to ensure that you remain in control of your assets and your reputation.