In Japan, on Saturday, April 1, a bill came into force giving bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies the status of means of payment. Reported by Nikkei.
As the newspaper notes, the recognition of virtual currency is associated with some difficulties, since its use is not regulated by any rules, and the exchange rate is subject to sharp changes. In this regard, the Japanese Auditing Standards Board plans to prepare a set of conditions for the circulation of cryptocurrency at Bitcoin casinos in Japan. The document is expected to take six months to develop.
The internal turnover of bitcoins, as well as currencies of Ripple, Litecoin, and others in Japan alone in 2015 reached 185 billion yen (1.67 billion dollars), writes Nikkei. By 2020, it is projected to increase to a trillion yen.
On March 2, the cost of bitcoin during trading reached $ 1,238, which is one dollar more expensive than a troy ounce of gold. This result also became the next all-time high.
Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency based on blockchain technology.
The most popular slot machines in Japan
Pachinko or pachislot is the only legal slot machine available in Japan. In its structure, it is a cross between a pinball and a classic video slot. While playing pachislot, a gambler cannot receive winnings with real money. Pachinko, as one of the few legal types of gambling entertainment, often adapts to cult gaming products. In gambling halls, you can find machines based on such popular games as Silent Hill and many others.
There are over 10,000 pachinko halls in the country.
The Japanese House of Representatives recently passed a new regulation on cryptocurrency assets affecting exchanges and custodians – the Payment Services Act and the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act. However, the country’s cryptocurrency gambling industry still adheres to strict rules regarding gambling.
Cryptocurrency gambling in Japan is not as prevalent as one might think given the track record of early introduction of cryptocurrency regulations, which may be related to his experience with the collapse of Mt. Gox, a Japanese crypto exchange that went bankrupt in 2014.
In early 2019, the Tron blockchain network, which claims to be building the infrastructure for a truly decentralized internet, blocked gaming apps on its dapp store in Japan under pressure from Japanese regulators.
How does cryptocurrency gambling work?
For the most part, blockchain gambling occurs in two ways: on-chain and off-chain.
Offline cryptocurrency gambling includes physical and online casinos accepting cryptocurrencies, mainly Bitcoin (BTC), as a method of depositing to an online casino account.
These institutions often use a third-party custodian like BitPay to convert Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies into local fiat currency. However, there are online casinos that work exclusively without paper money and payout money in bitcoins.
Online casinos and other more decentralized or distributed online gambling practices are also not fully immune to government regulations, as we saw with Tron’s refusal to show decentralized gaming apps to Japanese users, as reported by Cointelegraph. However, Japanese internet users can use a VPN to access Tron’s decentralized gambling apps or block decentralized apps from anywhere. Cryptocurrency gambling does remain a hotly debated topic in Japan. However, no official guidelines have been introduced yet.
In many countries, Bitcoin is not considered a legal method of payment under current regulations and therefore should not be used for gambling. Obviously, in different countries, more clarity is needed on this matter. Japan is perhaps the most striking example, where the gambling industry surpasses Nevada by more than $ 4 billion and is estimated to be $ 15.8 billion.
