Dealing cryptocurrency, a winning hand: How Americas Cardroom went to bat for the industry
No matter how you measure success, 2021 is shaping up to be a gangbuster year for cryptocurrency. Bitcoin and other blockchain assets have not only experienced explosive growth in the past few months, but they also continue to command headlines day after day — and not just in the cryptocurrency and financial press.
Bitcoin and even lesser known crypto options like Dogecoin are now household names. Whether you want to thank the huge speculative gains banked by traders, the clever memes on social media, or the late-night comedy shows that poke fun at crypto, there’s no denying that crypto’s moment is now.
Although it’s true that your local coffee shop likely doesn’t accept Bitcoin and you probably can’t pay for your haircut with Ethereum, mainstream adoption is getting closer every day. Over the past 12 months, PayPal, which is the world’s leading online payment service, added crypto services to its platform. More recently, several of America’s best-known financial institutions, including JPMorgan Chase & Co., BNY Mellon, and Wells Fargo Wealth & Investment Management, have all come to embrace digital assets in varying capacities. That’s particularly noteworthy given their earlier skepticism.
And let’s not forget the biggest cryptocurrency development of the year to date, which saw Tesla add crypto to its balance sheet and accept Bitcoin as payment for car purchases. Even if the EV manufacturer has temporarily suspended Bitcoin as a payment method due to environmental concerns, Elon Musk & Company did showcase the viability of crypto in a big way.
Yet as exciting as all these developments are, it’s the early adopters who deserve recognition. Without yesterday’s innovators taking a chance on formerly novel and unproven technologies, cryptocurrency would be little more than a footnote in the dustbin of history, rather than the glowing success story it is today.
While there’s certainly no shortage of Bitcoin pioneers worthy of our praise, popular interactive gaming site Americas Cardroom deserves credit for accepting Bitcoin when few would. The leading US-facing poker room, which also offers a full-fledged sportsbook and range of casino games, processed its first Bitcoin transaction in 2015.
Americas Cardroom’s willingness to accept Bitcoin was born out of necessity not novelty. As a global poker site, Americas Cardroom has always been forced to navigate what amounts to a tangled web of diverse regulations. Not only do the rules that govern gaming vary widely from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, but financial institutions in some countries refuse to process poker transactions even where it is fully legal.
What’s far worse for players is that the conventional banking system is surprisingly unpredictable. You don’t have to look far for player complaints about banks arbitrarily refusing to authorize gaming transactions on credit cards and debit cards, even when those cards have worked perfectly before.
Fortunately, the solution to Americas Cardroom’s problem and the frustration of its players was simply to think outside the box or, more specifically, outside the traditional banking system. That’s precisely where Bitcoin came into play.
By accepting Bitcoin, Americas Cardroom instantly removed the biggest obstacles that stood in the way of poker players and the game they love. And it’s been quite a lasting love affair, with Bitcoin accounting for just 2% of all transaction on Americas Cardroom in 2015, but more than 60% today.
What’s even more interesting is that Americas Cardroom opted to keep its crypto strategy simple. Unlike some other crypto gaming sites, Americas Cardroom doesn’t revolve around Bitcoin, nor does it cater to crypto fanatics or players who are explicitly tech savvy. Instead, the site offers Bitcoin as a deposit and withdrawal method alongside conventional banking options such as credit cards, giving players a choice. The poker site has also spent a great deal of effort creating tutorials to assist Bitcoin newbies and extoling the benefits of crypto, especially surrounding safety, security, privacy, and convenience.
Back to simplicity, every tournament entry fee, prize pool, and bet on the site is denominated in US dollar. That means that players also know how much they stand to win or lose at every stage of the game, which is particularly important given the high volatility of cryptocurrency.
Americas Cardroom achieves this feat rather easily. When a player deposits Bitcoin, the site converts the funds to US dollars instantly. A player can use their US dollar bankroll to enjoy all their favorite games without thinking about cryptocurrency exchange rates. Then when it’s time to cash out, Americas Cardroom converts the funds back to Bitcoin. Once the funds are in the player’s crypto wallet, they can easily transfer the money to their bank account or do whatever they see fit with it.
Even though Bitcoin is the most popular crypto by far, it’s just one of the cryptocurrencies that Americas Cardroom accepts. Over the past few years, Americas Cardroom has rolled out support for dozens of cryptocurrency options, including Ethereum and Ripple. With 60 different cryptos available for both deposits and withdrawals, the poker site isn’t playing favorites. It knows full-well that the blockchain is the future, even if it isn’t abundantly clear which options will gain mass adoption.
Americas Cardroom’s support of Bitcoin has helped fuel its growth. The poker room has seen traffic rise steadily over the past two years with no sign of waning. The site’s $5 Million Venom PKO, which was advertised as the world’s biggest progressive knock out tournament, easily beat its guarantee due to excessive demand. It’s safe to say that the $7.16 Million final prize pool was heavily stoked by crypto.
While being first of the gate is no guarantee of success—just ask past giants like Kodak, Atari, or Yahoo!—Americas Cardroom’s competitors have a lot of catching up to do when it comes to crypto. Not only are competing sites years behind Americas Cardroom when it comes to cryptocurrency, but Americas Cardroom has proven that it’s never content to rest on its laurels. We can’t wait to see what they have planned next.
For more information about Americas Cardroom visit americascardroom.eu.
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