Article published on May 29, 2014
D Las Vegas Casino Installs It's First Bitcoin ATM
By: Harper Whitefield
In yet another step forward to compete with online casinos, a land based location in Las Vegas has installed a new Bitcoin ATM.
With the online world ever growing for the online casino market, Bitcoin has been able to cement itself as a contender for space in the digital wallets of paying customers, despite it's sometimes unpredictable nature. Since some online gambling sites, have started to accept the digital currency as a valid form of payment, and others have opened sites entirely based on the crypto currency, such as 365BetBit Casino; real world casino operators have been looking to get in on the action.
Now they can, as the D Las Vegas Casino has done, by installing ATMs that function just as easily as those that we are all accustomed to but use Bitcoin as the value being traded instead of real money or credit from cash advances from credit cards. The machine installed in this location was manufactured by Robocoin which has been moving to fill the void previously left in the physical world by an increasing number of customers moving over to digital currency for some or most of their transactions.
An added bonus to the customer in the case of Bitcoin can also be seen as the greatest challenge that the digital currency has, it's instability. With the machines allowing gamblers to exchange Bitcoin and real cash in both directions, to and from their real and digital wallets, the fluctuations in the value of the digital currency can see a vast increase in the value they get for their transaction. It's not uncommon for Bitcoin to see an exchange percentage value swing in the hundreds on any given day, making a secondary form of excitement at the casino seeing a drastic increase in the real dollar value upon making a withdrawal.
Since there are typically rules in place that prohibit casinos and their employees from disclosing the gambling habits of patrons, it's not strange that the owner of D Las Vegas Casino, Derek Stevens, was tight lipped when asked about the number of guests coming to use the new machine. An item that he did comment on was that, since the casino started accepting Bitcoin in January, the volume of people who came to use their digital money was far greater than anticipated. At the moment, the casino does not allow Bitcoin to be used for gambling directly but does permit use in the restaurants, gift shop, and at the front desk. This shows what big gains can be made with small adjustments and well paid attention to the demands of a free and open market can do for a business that wants to be on the cutting edge.
