Decentralized Gambling Adoption Upticks As COVID-19 Lockdown Effects Hit Hard

The thought of turning a little cash into thousands and millions is a fascinating thought for anyone especially in these pandemic periods. However the core problems in traditional gambling such as fairness and anonymity set up barriers of entry to users. In this article we explore the growing lottery market, problems pertaining to the traditional market, and the solutions decentralized lottery projects offer in the industry.

COVID-19 lockdown sparks the growth in online gambling

As the U.S CARES Act stimulus checks are handed out, many citizens are resulting in lottery systems as pass-time activities to increase the extra cash they are holding. Take for instance, on April 22, local news reports showed weekly sales of physical lottery scratch cards by Texas Lottery, a lottery company, topped $112 million in the week ending April 18, 2020 representing a huge 16% jump in comparison to 2019 levels.

The gambling industry is experiencing massive growth amidst the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown enforced all across the world. The huge interest in lottery tickets however is currently limited given the minimized physical contact across the globe. This means most of the players are gradually moving towards online gambling platforms. However, there exist core problems in the traditional online gambling market and hence the need for decentralized systems, which provide solutions.

As the lockdown persists, players’ are increasingly switching to decentralized lottery systems in search of efficiency and transparency.

Problems facing traditional online gambling

The growth of online gambling sites has been hindered over the past few years with core issues such as fairness in winnings, transparency of random number generation, and the winning payouts. Notwithstanding, online gambling systems are plagued by player-centric and firm centric problems that deter consumers from participating.

Here are some of the player-centric problems from traditional online gambling platforms: lack of social interactions in the games, capped deposit and withdrawal amounts, hidden fees, geographic limitations, and centralized authority over the rules and regulations of the games.

Enter blockchain…

In light of the growing demand for lottery systems and gambling platforms during the lockdown, decentralized projects are taking up the mantle to offer users huge returns, and efficient platforms. Why blockchain?

“Blockchain keeps records of valuable transactions and makes it possible whether it’s ticket sale, jackpot wins, investments, commissions, and others to be transparent and fair to all parties involved.”

How blockchain improve the lottery/gambling industry

In order to explain how blockchain improves the lottery system let’s focus on Lotto Nation, a public blockchain that aims to offer users a worldwide decentralized lottery platform.

According to the platform’s official website the Lotto Nation platform will be integrated with an existing framework by Winners Group. This creates a decentralized and automated ecosystem serving as a hyper-connected network built with the robust smart contract-based lottery on the Ethereum blockchain.

Here’s how decentralized gambling platforms such as Lotto Nation are solving deep-rooted problems in traditional online gambling.

• Decentralized gambling worldwide: One of the largest problems solved by blockchain-based lotteries is access to different types of lotteries for users all across the world. This lifts the geographical limitations placed on centralized online gambling offering a viable business everywhere in the world
• Transparent awarding systems: Decentralized gambling systems also ensure transparency in winnings distribution and how the tickets are sold.
• Open source code of the RNG: Public blockchains are an open platform that forces the lottery creators to be honest in transactions. Several decentralized gambling platforms also have open-source RNG to ensure fairness in the gambles.
• The social aspect: One of the crucial areas that online gambling services miss is socialization in their games. Decentralized gambling introduces a social concept on the platform.
• Reduced fees for lottery operations: Blockchains are notorious in reducing transaction fees when sending value and on lottery platforms it’s no different. Minimum costs of operation are applied in the lottery participation with no hidden fees.

Conclusion

With the COVID-19 expected to be around for the foreseeable future, decentralized gambling and lottery systems are expected to continue their growth in this period. It is a good time to test the power of betting small and winning big on blockchain, and bypass the problems in centralized online gambling platforms.

You can test some of the top platforms such as Lotto Nation, Dice, and 88Tron here.