Vera and John Casino Stops Accepting Bitcoin Payments

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Vera and John, an online casino operator based in Malta, decided to stop accepting bitcoin payments after consulting the Lotteries and Gambling Authority (LGA) of Malta, with which it is licensed. However, the operator has promised that it will start accepting bitcoin payments again as soon as a regulatory framework has been created for cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin.

First Online Casino to Accept Bitcoin

In January 2014, Vera and John Casino became the first licensed and regulated online casino to start accepting bitcoin payments.

The online casino allowed customers to deposit in bitcoins and automatically converted them into Euros before crediting them into customers’ accounts. Players could then use their bitcoins to play more than 200 slot machine games at the casino site. They could win as much as 5,000 bitcoins at a time.

Based in the European Union (EU), Vera and John worked with Coinapult, a bitcoin payment processor. Whenever a player deposited in bitcoins at Vera and John, the bitcoin deposit is first directed to Coinapult, which converts them into Euros and re-deposits them into the players’ Vera and John accounts. A Coinapult spokesperson had stated at the time that the online casino is “extremely excited to get bitcoin payments up and running.”

Bitcoin Payments Temporarily Suspended

The online casino has, however, decided to temporarily suspend bitcoin as a payment solution after discussing the issue with the LGA of Malta. When asked about its reasons for doing so, the online casino operator gave a vague answer as follows.

Vera and John Director Nicolas Lund said: “Vera and John continuously challenges the status quo to find better ways to deliver a truly innovative, unique, and bespoke product to our players. We listen to what our players want while embracing technological advances. In turn this enables us to continuously deliver a more personalized customer experience to our ever expanding pool of diverse players who are looking for a fun, entertaining, and engaging gaming experience.”

Bitcoin Risks

Why did Vera and John start accepting bitcoin payments? According to some news reports, the online casino introduced bitcoin as a payment solution just for the experience, to find out more about it, especially about the various risks associated with it.

It may be recalled that bitcoin rates have been falling rapidly from the beginning of this year. In January, each bitcoin was worth US$900, but in April, the value of the crypto-coin fell as low as US$400. Nobody knows what the bitcoin condition might be in the near future.

The fall of Mt. Gox, a major bitcoin exchange, has also thrown a major scare into many bitcoin users. The exchange said that it had lost bitcoins worth more than US$500 million because of errors in the system and went bankrupt. However, after filing for bankruptcy, the company discovered 200,000 of the 850,000 coins it had claimed to have lost in a forgotten bitcoin wallet. The only people who will profit through the bankruptcy procedure are administrators and lawyers and the biggest losers are those who had bitcoins with Mt. Gox.