why would you want to do that?

i also disagree with your portrayal of this thread as a bunch of idiots high fiving each other and saying "i love you, bitcoiner ))" while circlejerking all over each other's faces. this isn't some obscure forum on the web that nobody goes to. this forum is visited by representatives of every poker site that actually matters. how do you think merchant acceptance works? they see the demand and the potential for profit and they make the decision whether accepting bitcoin as a payment method would work for them or not. so besides an actual email asking sites to accept bitcoin, +1 shows that the demand is real.

Ignore Monteroy, he has been anti-Bitcoin forever and is repeating the same old arguments as before. It's hard to take him seriously with his obvious I-don't-know-why hate for anything BTC related.

I've yet to hear a good argument against the adoption of btc - as long as they are converted to USD right away by the site.

look at the graph I posted and tell me you'd prefer to hold USD instead of BTC

Can't buy weed and pussy with BTC

weed:
http://www.reddit.com/r/darknetmarkets
pussy:
http://www.birminghamescorts.co.uk/bitcoinescorts.html

I don't see how these two can be separated. Anyone who can withdraw in their local currency can surely deposit in it, and has no reason to use BTC.

Hardly - I applaud all of those who made a considerable amount on this product when the timing was right, which is always before the followers come in and try to do the same. Bitcoins in that regard are the same as Beanie Babies, and I have no issue at all with people who had the right timing and approach to make a lot from products like this.



I have made arguments, but much of the Bitcoin crowd is fairly rigid in their passionate beliefs.

Threads like these are filled with people who proclaim that Stars should implement Bitcoins because it is a "no brainer," yet for some reason it has not been implemented by a company that has spent a lot of time and resources in handling payments.

I posted my situation and asked why someone like me would change which form of payment I use, and pretty much nobody really pushed that it would be good for me to change. One person went on about how exciting it would be to cashout bitcoins to then be able to spend them within an hour, but many humans have actual credit cards (with rewards) that already allow that facility. Someone brought up how Canada might be partitioned in the future, which of course has nothing to do with Bitcoins.

Sure the sites can use Bitcoins, but just plopping in a Bitcoin payment system is not free, so it needs to generate additional business that offset the costs and risks of it as a service.

That is why I have suggested that Bitcoiners make more of a statement by supporting the site(s) that utilize Bitcoins to show that they are willing to put their Bitcoins where their mouth is, otherwise why should any established site be that excited about it?




Break down how much additional business a site like Pokerstars would earn if they adopted Bitcoins, and breakdown the costs and risks. These threads rarely do that beyond "no brainer," and they end up being a repetitive thread of Bitcoin believers not understanding why people do not simply embrace them.




The "currency" itself has a lot of built in risk and volatility, and even if the currency risk is mitigated at the site level, the hurdle is still getting regular people to adopt it, otherwise it remains a niche product with a cult like following, and I guess for now I just do not see where the additional business comes to a company like Pokerstars with that dynamic.

I certainly understand why a smaller US facing network/skin will give them a shot, but how many non-Americans are playing on that WPN skin instead of Stars because of the Bitcoins?

The risk to regular people is significant, and the graph of bitcoin value over the past year will scare normal people quite a bit (and no doubt many of the followers who jumped in at 1k a pop are thinking over that choice)




Companies may not adopt the "no brainer" solution of Bitcoins as long as this is the case. I have yet to see a compelling reason otherwise.



If non-American Bitcoiners joined together and did this supporting the current Bitcoin friendly sites they could then approach Stars and show how much additional business they would get if they adopted Bitcoins.

All the Bitcoin Best.

Of course it does. At this point BTC sites are the only option for French/Italian/Spanish players who don't want to fight unbeatable rake.

Come back and hate on bitcoin poker when your government has ruined the other kind, as seems to be the trend lately. Until then, stop bragging about how you have it just fine so nobody should do anything to help the rest of us.

Unbeatable rake? I have a buddy who's a long time med-high stakes HUSNG reg and has won shark scope leaderboards numerous times and he currently lives in Spain 3 months on/3 months off because he makes more money on pokerstars.es than he does on the regular .com site. So I doubt non bit coin Spain sites are unbeatable.

Why you or anyone else that's happy with their current deposit and withdraw methods would or should switch to using bitcoin is irrelevant. It doesn't matter. To each their own.

I recently heard a story of someone that had to pay 7% to put money somewhere else in order to make a deposit on Stars.

Personally, I don't think withdraws in btc are going to happen any time soon. There's no reason not to accept btc for deposits though.

Lots of people are doing fine on those sites. If Canada gets segregated then I will be backing Canadians on that part of Stars while my partner handles the .eu side in terms of funding. The rake on the established Canadian sites are standard, so I do not expect much of a change in that regard - not like MTTs will be charging 50% rake. If they deduct for taxes that is fine as well - I already pay taxes, and I already encourage other Canadians I work with to do the same (as many fail to realize the benefit of running poker as a business properly).

Whatever happens within Canada this fall there will be minor relative to Black Friday and we did just fine when that happened as we were prepared for industry change. This will be no different. Things always change, and people can always adapt to make money (aside from extreme cases like the insanity that is how Greece handles taxes which will not be the case for Canada).

Bitcoin is a complete non issue with regard to the Canadian situation.


If you want sites to use Bitcoin then you need to show them how using Bitcoins will help their bottom line. It does matter.


Pre-Black Friday people charged 10-15% for cash in Vegas for Stars money. That is a nice premium to charge people who are not prepared or lazy. No doubt the guy who paid 7% could pay a lot less (or $0) if he did a bit of homework. Bitcoin would not solve that problem for him.


Pokerstars is not accepting Bitcoin for deposits now, and they are as on top of the processing situation as any company in this industry. Perhaps they will in the future, but until they do I will be going with the belief that there actually is a reason why they do not accept it as a form of deposit to date.

I have given suggestions for players as to how they can put some pressure with their wallet on Stars to enable Bitcoins, but to date we have yet to see that happen either.

If you guys want to have more in these threads than generic "no brainer," "no reason not to accept btc" comments alongside a bunch of "+1" posts and a graph of bitcoin value posted from 2011 (as if that matters) then start tacking the real issue - explain why a site like Pokerstars should adopt Bitcoin by breaking down their marginal benefits against their costs and risk. This really such a horrid suggestion?

All the best.

It's not a horrid suggestion but I don't think that matters either. My belief as to why they don't already is due to legal/regulation/compliance/processor issues.

I doubt attempting to put pressure on them will speed up the process.

I'm sure they can see the 1% or less transaction fees and other possibilities/benefits and as soon as they can implement deposits and/or withdraws they will.

A +1 is the only response that a thread like this really deserves.

Only read op. I feel all warm and fuzzy all of a sudden.

So your argument is that more sites should accept Bitcoin because it facilitates breaking the laws of those countries?

+1

+1

Not a chance in hell. It's not stable.

I agree with those factors and more as likely reasons why it is not being used. Apparently it is not a "no brainer" as many would prefer to think.

I have no expectations that any non US players will play on a tiny Bitcoin site over Pokerstars, no matter how much they love Bitcoins, but the only way to help encourage change is to be willing to do what it takes to stand up for one's beliefs.


It may not be that high on their "to do " list. The Skrill VIP point abuse lasted way, way longer than it should have lasted, and it probably only ended after Skrill ran one of the craziest "please exploit Stars" promos ever.

That approach is quite passive, but if it makes people feel better to do it then I guess that is fine as they sit and wait and hope things happen to work out as they like. If they do not then they can always post "+1" to more posts.

All the best.

+1

Lol you come in confidently with a point that has been refuted multiple times already. Good job!

I don't think that there is a single one central bank on this planet, that would "allow" a non controlled (by them) decentralized currency to be used widely.
We all know ofc that they print money out of "total air" and that's not gonna change.

Will Stars play the game "out of the system" by adopting BTC? Naaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh

That is the same view that people would give Dell or Expedia before they jumped in.

I haven't read much of this thread, so my question may be duplicative. I always thought that playing online poker was legal in the US, but it is illegal to use the financial markets to fund transactions (i.e. card/checking deposits). If BTC is not regulated by the US gov't, wouldn't it be legal to play on sites using BTC deposits in the US?

"And i won't leeeeeeet anyone else take you away from me"