In the latest news, Winning Poker Network (WPN) is the next and largest poker network to have started accepting the bitcoin digital currency for their online poker deposits adding credibility to this new currency.
For those who are not in the loop, WPN is the second largest US-facing poker network just behind Bovada. Americas Cardroom, the flagship skin on the network accepts US players except for residents from Kentucky, Maryland and Washington State.
But for the time being, Americas Cardroom on the WPN network is limiting Bitcoin transactions to deposits only. These are converted to USD for use in any of the real money online poker games on that site. There is talk that Americas Cardroom will begin to process Bitcoin withdrawals which should become available to players in the not too distant future through a software upgrade.
This is welcome news to players in the United States who were wanting to give bitcoins a try due to the super convenience of using this currency for online gaming not to mention the fact that everything is handled anonymously. Not even the poker site has personal information about their customers, which is of course not possible when dealing with fiat currencies like USD, GBP, and EUR. The currency is also not regulated by the government or a central bank making it even more appealing to online poker players.
Dedicated Bitcoin poker sites that accept US players like SealsWithClubs and Satoshi Poker have been a decent option for players to choose from, however, the WPN network is one of the first major online poker networks to accept this crypto currency, adding legitimacy to the virtual currency and making it more mainstream, as only the diehard early adopters of bitcoin have considered giving it a go.
So these sites weren’t exactly chock full of players up until this point in time. This might start a trend and more players may start playing at bitcoin poker sites. It’s not just online gaming sites that are adopting Bitcoin, last year many ecommerce merchants started accepting the currency, so those buying bitcoin have more reason to begin buying and mining for BTC.
It’s worth mentioning that there is one huge benefit to bitcoin’s introduction to poker networks accepting bitcoins for deposits. Players are able to buy bitcoins on a bitcoin exchange for a fiat currency and then transfer these funds to the cashier in USD, which can be used to play in real money games, so your chips are actually converted to real US dollars. When depositing in this manner, there is less risk taken on by the bitcoin depositor as any fluctuations to bitcoins value will not affect the value of the player’s bankroll on the site. This is great news for bitcoin players as playing online poker is risky enough and many players are not wishing to gamble twice in the form of gambling on the BTC value.
The WPN currently has a USD to bitcoin exchange rate of a bit more than $800 per coin, and while this figure does vary on a day-to-day basis, it does seem to be a true reflection of the actual current exchange rate as displayed on sites like Coinbase.
Over the course of 2014 it will be interesting to see what other large US-friendly poker sites will begin accepting the bitcoin e-currency. Given the rapid growth of Bitcoin it would be expected that many more networks and independent bitcoin poker sites will follow suit increasing the credibility of this virtual currency further. The updates have already been made in the Americas Cardroom cashier, so expect to be able to deposit with bitcoins at this US-friendly poker site instantly.