Cryptocurrency gambling is not specifically regulated under Australian law, but it is generally treated in the same way as traditional online gambling.  Online gambling is legal in Australia, but it is regulated by the federal government and each state and territory has its own set of regulations that apply to online gambling.  The Interactive Gambling Act of 2001 (IGA) is the federal law that regulates online gambling with Australian dollars, Bitcoin, Tether or any other currency in Australia.

Under the IGA, it is illegal for Australian-based companies to offer online gambling services, with dollars or crypto, to Australian residents, but it is not illegal for Australian residents to gamble online with offshore companies.  This means that if an offshore online gambling platform accepts cryptocurrency as a payment method, Australian residents are technically allowed to use their BTC, ETH or stablecoins to gamble on that platform.

Unfortunately, many of our readers lost more money by keeping their bitcoin and crypto on FTX last year than they did by betting on the Super Bowl or at the blackjack tables.  Once reputable long-term saving companies like BlockFi and Celsius also went bankrupt, which left a lot of cryptocurrency fans out of pocket.  In our opinion, you should never keep a large amount of money on a bitcoin exchange and you should instead always hold it in your own hardware wallet where you control the private keys.

However, we know that sometimes you need to hold stablecoins like Tether or Bitcoin on exchanges for a brief period of time when you need to buy or sell, so here are a few tips for poker players and sports bettors on what to look for when choosing a safe crypto-exchange.

Many people have made the mistake of ignoring cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Tether over the past few years because they think this type of technology is too difficult to understand.  They feel that if you are over the age of 30, you are too old to get to grips with blockchain technology.  The irony is that most of these people had to set up dial-up modems in the early days of the internet and use computers that were far less user-friendly than they are today.  Bitcoin wallets these days have become very easy to use and it could be argued that they are easier to use now than Venmo or PayPal.

Buying cryptocurrencies to gamble at a sportsbook or poker room can also be a straightforward process, but it does require some preparation and caution. Here are the general steps to follow to buy cryptocurrencies:

While cryptocurrency investors are seeing a saddening slump that is leaving many depressed about the current state of the crypto market, it seems that the crypto poker crowd has not gotten the memo. Despite lackluster prices, this industry is using cryptocurrency for what it was really meant for, transfer of value. Some of these poker platforms like the Winning Poker Network have reported that as much as 60% of their deposits now come from cryptocurrency, and that number is growing. In fact, the gambling industry might be one of the only niches still focused on using cryptocurrency for its intended purpose. 

While investors panic sell their portfolios to the lowest bidder, trying in vain to recoup losses from their previous highs, poker players are buying up those cheap coins at a growing rate. They are of course looking to make quick gains from cryptocurrencies as well but in a different way; hoping that a stellar hand will net them a big pay day instead of riding the latest ICO until its momentum peters out. Casino operators have gleefully reported that the slump has not caused a reduction in betting using these alternative currencies. In fact, the average size of the bets seems to actually be increasing. There’s a pretty simple reason for these findings. Online poker is simply one of the most spot on use cases for cryptocurrency ever, and everyone involved is excited about it. ​

Few weeks ago, EOSBet online casino was hacked and they lost over 44,000 EOS (about $240,000) to this hack. The hacker took advantage of a glitch in the EOS smart contract software and extracted EOS from the DApp’s operational wallet. The hacker was able to place bets on the platform without transferring EOS to the smart contract and for winnings, he got paid in EOS from the smart contract while losing nothing in the case of losses. EOSBET admitted that despite multiple audits before the attack, “there was still vulnerability in the smart contract”.

EOSBet had a another hack at the end of august when administrators were alerted to the theft of storage space resources through the EOSBet smart contract which revealed several flaws in the EOS code.  This resulted in the developers having to freeze their DApp temporarily to minimize damage.

Another decentralized betting platform, DEOS Games also reported suffering a hack attack on their platform to which they lost about $23,000 in the process. They received a malicious contract exploit on their smart contract which allowed $1000 to one user 24 times just within an hour!

Interestingly, the two casinos have similar sentiments regarding these hack attacks on their smart contract. They both say it is a good stress test of the vulnerability of their smart contract and that significant improvements have been made to prevent future attacks.