Crypto Gambling Explodes to $81.4 Billion Despite Legal Hurdles

2024 Sees Fivefold Surge in Crypto Casino Wagers

Hang onto your hats, folks! Crypto gambling is blowing up, raking in a mind-blowing $81.4 billion in gross gaming revenue last year alone. Yeah, you heard that right—even though it's illegal in most places, the crypto casino scene is on fire!

Crypto Casinos Thrive in Legal Gray Areas

The numbers are in, and 2024 has seen crypto casinos skyrocket, pulling in over $81.4 billion in wagers—a staggering fivefold jump from 2022! According to the latest from YieldSec, these digital dens are unstoppable.

So how are they pulling this off? Even though crypto gambling sites are banned in many countries, players are getting crafty, using VPNs and other slick tricks to get in on the action. Hotshots like Stake, Rollbit, and Roobet are setting up shop in places like Curaçao and Malta where crypto gambling's totally legit. Stake's not playing around either—they say they're behind up to 4% of all Bitcoin transactions, with 25 million users dropping a whopping 300 billion bets since they kicked off in 2017.

And get this—a Stake spokesperson told the Financial Times they're totally above board, fully licensed and playing by the rules. But when the Financial Times put it to the test, they managed to sneak into an account from London using a VPN, no address or affordability checks needed right away.

Regulators Crack Down as Scams Emerge

Since April 2024, the British Gambling Commission's been on the warpath, firing off over 280 cease-and-desist letters to anyone daring to accept and promote crypto as a deposit method in the U.K.

But the wild world of crypto casinos isn't just a U.K. problem. In mid-April, word got out that Richard Kim, a former Wall Street bigwig, was caught red-handed, allegedly scamming investors out of more than $4 million with his blockchain-based casino project, ZeroEdge.

Kim, who used to hustle at Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan, launched ZeroEdge in March 2024, hyping it up as a crypto-powered casino with on-chain games. He managed to rake in $4.3 million through seed financing and token sales, but prosecutors say he was just pocketing the cash for himself. Now, Kim's facing the heat with federal charges of wire fraud and securities fraud, and the case is still heating up.