Crypto casinos are booming
Crypto casinos have become increasingly popular over the last couple years. Living on the outskirts of regulation, online casinos that deal exclusively in cryptocurrencies appeal to those who really want to gamble, but either want their financial transactions harder to track or need to get around regulations that make traditional avenues of deposit more difficult. Most of the biggest online casino streamers also use crypto casinos, growing the sites’ popularity even more. Now, according to Sky News, some gamblers have gotten around the UK’s prohibition on crypto casinos by purchasing established accounts.
The UK does have obstacles in place to prevent people from gambling on crypto sites, but users in the country have been able to simply take over accounts that have already been set up and are ready to go.
Prospective account buyers have been able to hook up with sellers via ads on popular social media channels, primarily Facebook and Discord. Sky News said that ads could also be found on X, TikTok, Telegram, and Reddit.
Most of the ads were for the site Stake, the most popular crypto casino on the internet, and the one at which most of the most-watched streamers play. Music superstar Drake has a marketing deal with the site, as well. Sky News noted that there is no evidence that Stake has anything to do with the ads or account selling and that the company does work to prevent unauthorized access to the site.
In the UK, crypto casinos are blocked, so people who try to access a site get error messages or are redirected to a UK version of the site. There are ways around this through use of different software programs (likely VPNs), so often UK residents can still get on the sites. But there is still the problem of identity verification.
It’s just that easy
This is where the account sellers come in. The advertisements Sky News found were for “pre-made” accounts with the ID verification already completed. Buyers could pay more for advanced verification, like proof of address and source of funds, not just photo ID.
And lots of the accounts are cheap, just $10-$50, depending on verification level. Some “premium” accounts with VIP features can cost thousands.
Sky News said that it appears many of the account sellers were gamblers that had lost tons of money and both had no use for the account any more and needed to recover at least a little bit of cash.
One person told the media outlet, “I lost $225,000 [gambling] this month. I don’t have any money anymore. I’m poor now. I need money for food in the next week.”
A spokesperson for Stake told Sky News, “Stake is aware of attempts to evade our industry-leading controls by a variety of means. Stake has the strongest controls in the industry, meaning that anyone attempting to fraudulently gain access to Stake must devise new methods of doing so.
“Our approach to combating fraudulent attempts to access Stake, working alongside regulators and law enforcement, is constantly evolving to stay ahead of bad actors.”
TikTok, Facebook, Discord, and Reddit all removed the ads after Sky News brought them to their attention.
