Crypto casino revenue hit $81B in 2024 despite global restrictions
Crypto casinos generated more than $81 billion in revenue in 2024, even as regulators in key jurisdictions continued to block access to the platforms, according to a new report.
Citing data from the anti-online-crime platform Yield Sec, the Financial Times reported that wagers paid in crypto in 2024 generated $81.4 billion in gross gaming revenue (GGR). This metric refers to the difference between bets taken and winnings paid out.
Yield Sec data also showed that the annual revenue for crypto casinos has increased five times since 2022, despite gambling sites being blocked in the United States, China, the United Kingdom and the European Union.
Crypto casino Stake rivals traditional betting platforms
Betting platform Stake reported that its GGR in 2024 was around $4.7 billion, up 80% since 2022. This puts it on a par with some of the biggest gambling groups, such as Entain and Flutter. Entain reported $5 billion, while Flutter reported $14 billion in revenue in 2024.
Stake offers traditional casino games, including blackjack, roulette and slots. The platform also allows users to bet on sports. Users on the betting platform generally transact in crypto, with account balances being deposited and withdrawn directly into crypto wallets.
In 2023, the crypto betting platform was hacked, with $41 million withdrawn from its wallets. On Sept. 4, 2023, security firms flagged suspicious outflows from the platform. The company then confirmed the hack through social media, saying there were unauthorized transactions from its Ethereum and BNB Chain hot wallets.
On Sept. 7, 2023, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation said the $41 million hack was executed by the notorious North Korean hacking group Lazarus.
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Gamblers access illegal sites through VPNs
Even though crypto gambling sites are officially blocked in many jurisdictions, users can access them by bypassing geo-blocking restrictions with VPNs, which allows users to place bets on sites blocked in their country.
Former players and crypto users told the FT that many online guides show people how to bypass geo-blocking restrictions to access a crypto gambling platform. Cointelegraph confirmed that some influencers offer online tutorials that teach people how to access blocked gambling sites.
“Ready-to-gamble” crypto casino accounts are also reportedly being sold on social media platforms, according to Sanya Burgess, journalist at The i Paper.
Users sell accounts that have already passed through betting sites’ registration processes. On Jan. 31, Sky News reported that some users sell pre-verified crypto casino accounts for as little as $10. These ready-to-gamble accounts are reportedly sold on social media sites like Facebook.
Magazine: Your AI ‘digital twin’ can take meetings and comfort your loved ones
The CARF regulation, which brings crypto under global tax reporting standards akin to traditional finance, marks a crucial turning point.
The nascent real-world tokenized assets track prices but do not provide investors the same legal rights as holding the underlying instruments.
Rachel Reeves has hinted that taxes are likely to be raised this autumn after a major U-turn on the government’s controversial welfare bill.
Sir Keir Starmer’s Universal Credit and Personal Independent Payment Bill passed through the House of Commons on Tuesday after multiple concessions and threats of a major rebellion.
MPs ended up voting for only one part of the plan: a cut to universal credit (UC) sickness benefits for new claimants from £97 a week to £50 from 2026/7.
Initially aimed at saving £5.5bn, it now leaves the government with an estimated £5.5bn black hole – close to breaching Ms Reeves’s fiscal rules set out last year.
Read more:
Yet another fiscal ‘black hole’? Here’s why this one matters
Success or failure: One year of Keir in nine charts
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Rachel Reeves’s fiscal dilemma
In an interview with The Guardian, the chancellor did not rule out tax rises later in the year, saying there were “costs” to watering down the welfare bill.
“I’m not going to [rule out tax rises], because it would be irresponsible for a chancellor to do that,” Ms Reeves told the outlet.
“We took the decisions last year to draw a line under unfunded commitments and economic mismanagement.
“So we’ll never have to do something like that again. But there are costs to what happened.”
Meanwhile, The Times reported that, ahead of the Commons vote on the welfare bill, Ms Reeves told cabinet ministers the decision to offer concessions would mean taxes would have to be raised.
The outlet reported that the chancellor said the tax rises would be smaller than those announced in the 2024 budget, but that she is expected to have to raise tens of billions more.
It comes after Ms Reeves said she was “totally” up to continuing as chancellor after appearing tearful at Prime Minister’s Questions.
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Why was the chancellor crying at PMQs?
Criticising Sir Keir for the U-turns on benefit reform during PMQs, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said the chancellor looked “absolutely miserable”, and questioned whether she would remain in post until the next election.
Sir Keir did not explicitly say that she would, and Ms Badenoch interjected to say: “How awful for the chancellor that he couldn’t confirm that she would stay in place.”
In her first comments after the incident, Ms Reeves said she was having a “tough day” before adding: “People saw I was upset, but that was yesterday.
“Today’s a new day and I’m just cracking on with the job.”
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Reeves is ‘totally’ up for the job
Sir Keir also told Sky News’ political editor Beth Rigby on Thursday that he “didn’t appreciate” that Ms Reeves was crying in the Commons.
“In PMQs, it is bang, bang, bang,” he said. “That’s what it was yesterday.
“And therefore, I was probably the last to appreciate anything else going on in the chamber, and that’s just a straightforward human explanation, common sense explanation.”
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