The problem is that banks and traditional financial institutions have always been uncomfortable with the concept of online gaming. So, while payment solutions like PayPal and Apple Pay were perfected for the rest of the internet, online poker has largely been ignored. Fortunately, crypto was born and allows a greater degree of freedom on where you want to spend your money.

When it comes to online poker, the freedom that crypto offers are unmatched. There are many reasons to use crypto for online poker but today we’re looking at the top three in our estimation:

Top 3 Best Things About Crypto for Online Poker

1. Crypto Doesn’t Involve Banks, Can’t Be Blocked

I’ve been in the game long enough to know that dealing with banks or credit card companies rejecting my attempts to transfer money to an online poker site is a common headache. Some banks outright ban online poker, while others can be unpredictable, approving some transactions and canceling others without any clear explanation.

But here’s the game-changer: Crypto transactions are immune to these roadblocks, plain and simple. While there are some drawbacks to using crypto (we’ll discuss those shortly), you’ll never have to put up with a third-party dictating where you can or cannot send your money.

You can’t beat the ultimate freedom of crypto when it comes to online poker.

2. It’s Fast and Cheap

Crypto is arguably the most transferrable asset in the world. You need exactly one thing to send crypto to another person or entity: A crypto address.

A crypto address is simply a string of numbers and letters that’s generated by a wallet. It can be a personal wallet or a company.

Once you have an address you can send crypto anywhere in the world in a matter of minutes. It removes the need for banks or payment processors like PayPal or Venmo.

Generally, the transfer fees are quite low on cryptocurrency networks and far cheaper than traditional wire transfers.

It’s worth noting that crypto fees can vary depending on how busy the network is for that particular coin. However, you can wait for lower fees during quieter times. While you might expect to pay a few dollars for popular cryptos like Bitcoin or Ethereum, there are other cryptocurrencies with even lower transaction fees.

3. It’s Historically an Appreciating Asset

It’s your choice whether you want to actually hold crypto long-term but Bitcoin has arguably been the single best asset to hold over the last decade.

To put things in perspective, if you bought $1,000 worth of Bitcoin in 2014 and held it all the way to the time this article was published (2023), you’d have over $30,000. That beats gold, silver and every stock.

It’s unlikely those gains will ever be seen again but Bitcoin has always been a winner over the long-term.

Of course, that legendary volatility also has some downsides, which lead us to our next segment on the 3 worst things about crypto for online poker.

Top 3 Worst Things About Crypto for Online Poker

While crypto is incredibly useful for playing online poker there are also some negatives you should understand before charging headlong into crypto.

Here’s the three worst things about using crypto for online poker:

1. Crypto is Somewhat Difficult to Acquire

This might seem like an obvious one but if you want to use cryptocurrency for online poker, you need to have some cryptocurrency in the first place.

But here’s where it gets tricky: Getting cryptocurrency can be a bit of a hassle, especially if you live in a place where crypto exchanges aren’t easy to find. Some countries and states don’t have exchanges readily available.

To start, you’ll probably have to sign up for an account with a crypto exchange. This involves a process where you verify your identity by providing things like your address, driver’s license, or government ID. It can take a few days, and there’s a bit of a learning curve to figure out how to set up your account and send crypto.

On the other hand, if you have a friend or family member who already has cryptocurrency, they might be able to send some your way, skipping the exchange step. But there’s a catch: If you ever want to turn that cryptocurrency back into cash, you’ll still need that crypto exchange account.

2. It’s Highly Volatile

Remember how we said Bitcoin is one of the fastest-appreciating assets of the last decade? Well, it hasn’t all occurred in a straight line.

Bitcoin is one of the most volatile asset classes in the world. It’s not uncommon for BTC to gain or lose 10-20% in a single day. That means you might lose a significant chunk of your poker winnings while waiting for a crypto exchange to convert your Bitcoin to cash. Of course, you could also gain that much as well.

On the positive side, all online poker sites will convert your crypto to fiat currency like USD so that you can avoid that volatility while you’re playing online poker.

3. You Can’t Spend It Like Cash

Although there are a few places that do accept cryptocurrency as a form of payment, it’s important to recognize that this is more of a rarity than the norm.

While you can use crypto to send money to others and, in some cases, pay for specific services, it’s relatively uncommon to find retailers or businesses that readily embrace cryptocurrency as a direct method of payment.

There are a few solutions for this issue. You can use crypto to buy gift cards. You could also apply for a credit card that works with crypto. But most of the time you’re going to be taking an extra step of sending crypto to your exchange of choice, converting it back to cash and then getting it send to your bank account. That will likely take a few days at best and it’s an extra step that you just won’t experience with cash.

My Conclusion

In the world of online poker, cryptocurrency is your winning ticket, offering unparalleled freedom, speed, and potential for growth. However, it’s not without its challenges, from acquiring crypto to navigating its volatility and limited acceptance. As you step into this exciting game, remember that knowledge is your greatest asset. Embrace the advantages of crypto while keeping an eye on the risks, and you’ll play your hand wisely, enjoying all that this innovative technology brings to the table.

If you’re new to online slots and you don’t know your wilds from your win multipliers and your scatters from your stacked symbols, take some to browse our A-Z slots glossary. This article lists all the common terms you’ll encounter the next time you play slots online.

Hopefully, you should have a better handle on how online slots work after reading this glossary. Our goal is to help you become the next slots slayer right here at LiveRoulette!

A

All Ways: Otherwise known as ‘win both ways’ these slots can have hundreds of available paylines  which can pay from left-to-right or right-to-left, maximising your winning potential.

Autoplay: If you want to play a multiple number of spins without having to press ‘Spin’ each time, set your gameplay to autoplay a pre-selected number of spins.

B

Bonus Games: Most online slots have at least one bonus game, which is often triggered by scatters or wild symbols. These bonus games can range from free spins rounds to bonus wheels and “pick-me” features.

Branded Slot: A branded slot is one that’s themed around a specific franchise, such as a Hollywood movie or hit television series, featuring exclusive visual and audio content.

C

Cascading Reels: Symbols involved in winning combinations are removed from the reels, leaving gaps to be replaced by new slot symbols that drop in from the top. This gives you a chance to win multiple combinations on a single spin.

Classic Slot: A ‘classic’ slot is one which nods to old-school fruit machines, featuring the classic fruity symbols, bells, lucky sevens and BARS, amongst others.

Cold Game: More common on casino floors than online slots, when a slot game is said to be ‘cold’ it means it does not pay out as frequently.

Coins: The funds you add to your chosen slot are displayed in a coin value, based on the minimum bet size per spin.

E

Expanding Wilds: An expanding wild is a special type of wild symbol (see ‘Wild’ for full description). Whenever the expanding wild feature is active, a wild symbol will expand to fill an entire reel to bring greater winning potential.

F

Fixed Jackpot: Online slots with a fixed jackpot have a fixed maximum prize, usually triggered by landing five of a specific symbol on a payline, or sometimes triggered at random.

Free Spins: It’s possible to unlock extra free spins by landing certain win combinations, such as three scatter symbols on a payline. A free spin is quite literally a free spin of the reels.

Fruit Machine: The British name for a classic slot machine. Fruit machines are the classic three-reel, three-payline slots featuring fruit symbols, lucky sevens, bells and BARs.

G

Gamble Feature: Within some slot games it is possible to gamble the winnings from your spin. You may be asked to pick a card suit or colour, or to guess high or low on the outcome of a card displayed on screen. You could double, triple or even quadruple your money depending on the game, but it’s also possible to lose all your winnings.

H

High Volatility: A slot deemed to have high volatility means that it is programmed to give out less frequent prizes and jackpots. However, most high volatility slots tend to offer bigger prizes when they do pay out.

Hit-And-Run: This term is used to describe slot players that play on single payline slots using maximum coins for a few spins and move on to the next slot if they don’t win.

Hit Frequency: How often a slot pays out on average. For example, a game with a hit frequency of five is expected to yield a winning payline approximately every five spins.

Hot Game: The opposite of a ‘Cold game’, hot slots are those that are said to be paying out regularly and in large sums.

J

Jackpot: The jackpot of an online slot is the coveted top prize, and can be fixed, progressive or linked across a network of slots.

L

Linked Progressive Jackpots: On occasion, there are multiple slot games whose progressive jackpots are linked together, often branded slots based on the same franchise. It doesn’t matter which one you play, you will be playing for the same progressive jackpot.

Loose Slot: A ‘loose’ slot is one that is considered to have low volatility, paying out more regularly than a ‘tight’ or high volatility slot.

Low Volatility: Low volatility slots tend to have higher hit frequencies and are often great slots for beginners. The trade-off is that low volatility slots may have smaller prizes on offer.

M

Maximum Bet: The maximum bet is the largest stake you can place per spin on your chosen slot game, based on the number of active paylines and the maximum coin denomination available.

Megaways^TM: This is a popular slot game engine is designed to expand the number of rows played per reel, giving you up hundreds of thousands of potential ways to win.

Mobile Slot: Mobile slots are those optimised for responsive gameplay across desktop, smartphone and tablet devices, utilising the latest HTML5 technology.

Multi-Line: This term is used to describe online slots with more than a single payline.

Multiplier: A multiplier could be a specific symbol which can multiply your winnings by a predetermined figure. Multipliers can also be found in free spins rounds, when the more consecutive wins you land, the bigger the multiplier grows.

N

Near miss: Players that narrowly miss out on a winning combination on a payline describe this as a near miss.

Nudge: Inspired by classic fruit machine gameplay, some slots have a ‘nudge’ functionality included, allowing players to hit the nudge button to move a reel up or down one space to form a winning payline.

O

One-Armed Bandit: The first slot machines produced in land-based casinos, which required players to pull a lever to spin the reels.

P

Payline: A payline is the line that symbols need to align with to trigger a payout.

Pay Table: The pay table for any slots online is designed to fully explain the rules and payout sizes of each game. It outlines the low and high-value symbols to look out for on the reels.

Penny Slot: A penny slot game is one which requires players to pay as little as €0.01 per spin.

Pick-Me Bonus: A type of slot bonus screen whereby players must select on-screen options to reveal instant prizes.

Progressive Jackpot: A progressive jackpot is a rolling jackpot that continues to increase in value until it is won. A percentage of each player’s stake per spin is contributed to the progressive jackpot, so the more players play, the higher the pot.

R

Random Number Generator: All state-of-the-art online slots are powered by a random number generator (RNG), which is a tamper-proof algorithm designed to randomise the outcome of every spin.

Reels: These are the columns within which the symbols spin to create potential winning combinations.

Return To player (RTP): The RTP percentage gives slot players an indicator of how much they can expect to return from their spins. If a slot has an RTP of 97%, for every €100 you stake, you can expect to receive €97 back on average.

S

Scatter Symbol: The scatter symbol is often used to trigger bonus rounds, and is usually the only symbol on the reels that the wild does not substitute for.

Stacked Symbols: Whenever the same symbols appear on top of one another on the reels, they are considered stacked.

Stacked Wilds: Whenever the wild symbol appears on top of one another on the reels, they are considered stacked.

T

Total Bet: The size of the total bet in an online slot is the total number of coins staked across all paylines.

V

Variance: The variance of a slot is the payout rate of a specific game. Slots with high variance are programmed to pay out less frequently than low variance slots. Variance can be used interchangeably with volatility.

Video Slot: A video slot game is designed to be displayed on desktop, smartphone or tablet screens using virtual reels instead of mechanical reels.

Volatility: Highly volatile slots are those that pay out less frequently, but with typically larger payouts when they do. Low volatility slots are those that pay out smaller prizes over a greater hit frequency.

W

Wild: A wild symbol is one of the most lucrative symbols in a slot game. Wilds can usually substitute any other base game symbol to improve winning combinations, except scatters. The same way that a joker works in a game of cards.

Win Both Ways: Slots with win both ways functionality can pay out on paylines running right-to-left as well as left-to-right.

Z

Zig-zag: Some slot paylines are designed to go up and down the reels or diagonally. These are known as zig-zag paylines.

Ready To Play?

Now that our slots glossary has equipped with all the slot lingo you need, log in or create a new account to play online slots at our Canadian online casino today!

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The digital age has seen the explosive rise of anonymous online casinos, where privacy is paramount. These platforms offer players the chance to gamble without revealing their identity, ensuring an added layer of security. Dive into our expert guide on the best practices and perks of diving into the world of anonymous casinos in 2023.

In the last decade, anonymous online casinos have surged in popularity due to advancements in encryption and privacy technologies, allowing players to have all the fun of online gambling but while keeping themselves more protected. However, their growth has brought legal complexities. It’s crucial to understand the stance your jurisdiction takes on anonymous gambling, as regulations can vary widely. Generally, there aren’t laws in any US states that prevent players from using these sites, as most are licenced and registered offshore, meaning they’ll be safe to use (source: https://www.basketballinsiders.com/online-casinos/anonymous/). 

In terms of games, traditional games like blackjack, poker, and roulette are available anonymously, much like they are at other online casinos. These games maintain the thrill of strategic play, but with the added peace of mind that your identity remains hidden. Online versions incorporate sophisticated mechanisms to ensure fair play, like third-party tested RNGs, while keeping your details confidential.

Playing anonymously grants players the luxury of pacing themselves without the worry of identity exposure. This becomes especially handy for newcomers easing into the world of gambling. Furthermore, anonymous casinos often feature diverse game variants, ensuring players always have fresh experiences.

Live dealer games offer the unique blend of real-time casino atmosphere with the promise of anonymity. Engage with real dealers and fellow players, all while remaining incognito. These live sessions, employing real cards and roulette wheels, ensure a transparent, yet private gaming experience.

Anonymous slot machines have come a long way since online casinos first started appearing. Nowadays, these games feature stunning visuals and diverse themes. Their appeal often lies in their simplicity and the assurance that your gaming session remains discreet.

When selecting an anonymous online casino, prioritize its reputation and licensing. The casino’s commitment to user privacy, range of games, payment anonymity, and customer support are key considerations. A reputable platform ensures both fun and privacy—just because you don’t have to verify your identity to play, it doesn’t mean that the casino shouldn’t have to prove that they are operating legally and fairly. 

Bonuses in anonymous casinos are enticing, but always read the fine print to understand the stipulations, much like you would before playing at other online casinos. For loyal gamblers, reload bonuses and loyalty programs offer added incentives, making gameplay even more rewarding.

The mobile revolution hasn’t bypassed anonymous casinos. Many now optimize their platforms for mobile devices, allowing you to play discreetly on the move. 

Although we’ve covered a lot above about these casinos, here’s a quick look at the pros and cons of them. 

Pros:

• Online privacy is becoming increasingly important, with the growing number of scams going around. 
• Gamble anywhere in the world, regardless of local restrictions. 
• If an anonymous casino also uses crypto payments, these are more secure than those made with fiat currencies.
• No verification required to sign up, meaning players who don’t want to share sensitive, personal information online don’t have to. 

Cons: 

• It can be difficult to find properly licensed and regulated anonymous casinos. 
• Customer support might not be as responsive at these platforms. 
• If using crypto to play, their value can be quite volatile, meaning you don’t always get paid out as much as you’d have expected. 

In conclusion, anonymous online casinos merge the thrill of gambling with the peace of secure, private play. Whether you’re a seasoned player or a newbie, navigating the world of anonymous casinos with informed choices ensures both fun and safety.