Bitcoin's Popularity on the Rise in China

With its seemingly ever-rising value since the beginning of 2013, the digital currency Bitcoin is skyrocketing in its popularity nowadays. This of course has its repercussions on the world of online gambling, displayed amongst others, with the recent actions carried out by the US Government to rule out a possibility of the usage of Bitcoin as a viable currency for online gambling by offshore US gambling operators.

Popularity in China

While the acceptance of Bitcoin's unregulated, decentralized character remains rocky by US authorities, Bitcoin's popularity seems to be on the rise in China. Only in May, Bitcoin client downloads in China surpassed their counterpart US downloads with a ratio of 85k Chinese client downloads opposite to 64k American downloads. This also has to do with the airing of a documentary about Bitcoin on national Chinese TV, in the beginning of May, which shed a positive light on the Digital Currency.

This emergence of Bitcoin in China has triggered some opinions regarding the currency's potential positive role in dealing with the Chinese government's strict regulations dealing with online movement of money. However this might prove problematic due to Bitcoin's expected inability to stand within the required monetary scopes required by Macau's junket operators.

Bitcoin could indeed be a great solution for the hardships imposed on Chinese online gamblers by their government; but perhaps this solution is too good to be true. It is only foreseeable that the Chinese authorities will work to confine Bitcoin if it becomes a prevalent funding method among online gamblers.