China, a Huge Growth Region for Crypto Gaming: Darin Oliver

The surge in internet penetration China-wide presents a “massive opportunity” for introducing cryptocurrency gaming and establishing a powerful financial industry, according to BlockDraw CEO, Darin Oliver.

Oliver, who heads a company developing the namesake blockchain casino platform, thinks the Chinese market is likely to have the same impact on online- as it already does on the land-based gaming. He believes cryptocurrencies to be the right channel to serve industry needs in the long run.

“A Massive Growth Region for Online Gaming”

On Wednesday, Oliver said at G2E in Las Vegas:

“From a business standpoint, there’s no question that Asia is a massive growth region for online gaming. One of the ways to understand growth in gambling is to look at internet penetration rates. Countries that have rapidly growing internet penetration rates tend to have high acceptance of new online gamblers.”

To illustrate, Oliver underlined that, in the next five years, Russia is expected to add 20 million internet users, Ukraine - 5 to 10 million, and China - 120 million. “That’s the size of a large country,” exclaimed Oliver.

“When you have these new opportunities for a financial industry to occur and you have growth occurring in certain sectors, it represents an incredible opportunity which is why I’m very bullish on online gambling, particularly crypto-only online gambling.”

Volatility Yet to Be Addressed

Asked how it is possible to operate a crypto casino when tokens are highly volatile, Oliver said:

“That’s a really good question and it’s one we’re addressing in BlockDraw. We’re trying to come up with a solution to create a stable token for our platform.”

“The Chinese have a difficult time cracking down on crypto because it’s very moveable … and it’s not a surprise that crypto is popular in countries where the currency is questionable,” he added. “The idea that they can block crypto is nonsense. These countries already have problems with their currencies – every country in Eastern Europe struggles to have faith in their currency and the same rings true of the Chinese.”

Anti-Crypto Sentiment Gaining Momentum in China

Oliver’s reasoning may appear to be valid to some, but the Chinese beg to differ. According to a source, China is looking to join the group of countries where cryptocurrencies are unwelcome. A couple of weeks back, country’s government announced a plan to ban bitcoin. With the estimated worth of country’s cryptocurrency market standing at $150bn, it is obvious that some changes need to be made.

According to undisclosed sources, the ban doesn’t imply a “total disappearance” of cryptocurrencies countrywide. I.e., it is expected that the Central Bank of China (CBC) will continue its OTC transactions, despite CBC officials remaining silent on the issue.

Other Southeast Asian countries have witnessed some interesting developments in the field. It has been recently confirmed that South Korea is planning to join Japan in regulating its crypto market. The country’s Financial Services Commission (FSC) says the regulations would make it possible for them to monitor all cryptocurrency operations, which would rule out the possibility of illegal ones taking place. FSC spokesperson has been quoted as saying that the government needs to keep cryptocurrencies safe from being “used as crime tools.”

Source:

“China Presents Unique Opportunity for Crypto Gambling: Expert”, Ben Blaschke, asgam.com, October 11, 2018.