Crypto Casinos Earned $81.4 Billion in 2024 Despite Bans

According to new data from the Financial Times, the annual gross gaming revenue (GGR) of crypto casinos rose to $81.4 billion, five times more than in 2022. Despite being illegal in most countries, players easily bypass restrictions using VPNs, mirror sites, and URL redirection.

📈 Revenue Growth and Market Leaders

Major crypto casinos such as Stake, Rollbit, and Roobet, registered in jurisdictions like Curaçao, Malta, the Isle of Man, and Gibraltar, are now comparable in scale to traditional gambling giants.

For comparison, GGR of traditional operators:

• Entain: £5 billion
• Flutter: $14 billion
• Bet365: £3.7 billion

⚠️ Risks and Lack of Oversight

Experts note that the lack of spending limits and effective KYC procedures makes crypto casinos attractive to minors and problem gamblers, as well as users from countries like China, where online betting is completely banned.

The use of cryptocurrency, whose value is unstable, increases the risks: “When crypto went up, I thought I had ‘passive income’ for betting; when it dropped — I played to recover losses,” says a former problem gambler.

📢 Marketing and Sponsorship

Crypto casinos actively invest in marketing through influencers, who often provide viewers with instructions on how to bypass geo-restrictions.

• Roobet and Rollbit sponsor English football clubs Chelsea and Leicester City.
• Stake is a sponsor of Everton.

The UK Gambling Commission has already issued a warning to all three clubs about “the risks of promoting unlicensed sites.”