Online Ethereum Gambling Guide – How To Use ETH At Trusted Gambling Sites Accepting Ethereum
While Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency to be supported for legal online gambling deposits and payouts, it certainly wasn’t the last. In fact, most sites rolled out support for Ethereum online gambling at the same time. And because Ethereum has more use cases than Bitcoin, it quickly became just as big an alternative bet funding method. Today, Ethereum (ticker symbol ETH, aka “Ether”) is universally the second most popular online gambling cryptocurrency.
Of course, Ethereum gambling may not be the best choice for everyone. Like all legal betting banking methods, the ETH crypto has benefits and drawbacks. The legality of using Ethereum to bet online isn’t in question; it’s 100% legal. But the utility of using Ethereum depends almost entirely on what you want to get out of it – beyond the big win at your online gambling site.
Is It Legal To Gamble With Ethereum Online In The United States?
Yes, definitely. Online ETH gambling is legal in the US (as well as in Canada), as you can use Ether for any legitimate, lawful transaction. Since online gambling is legal in America, it’s also perfectly legal to fund that gambling with the Ethereum crypto coin.
Interestingly, domestic US casinos, sportsbooks, and poker rooms – whether online or off – don’t support Ethereum gambling as of 2024. Only one US state – Wyoming – actually allows for “cryptocurrency” to be used for gambling purposes, but even there, no venue has rolled out support for the stuff.
As such, for the foreseeable future, the only place to gamble with cryptos like Ethereum will be the legit offshore betting sites we recommend here.
Note: The state of Washington actually has laws barring residents from betting real money over the Internet. While these aren’t enforced, WA gambling laws take precedence over US gambling laws for those living inside the state. Please always follow all local gambling mandates.
Online Ethereum Casinos
The most popular kind of online gambling is online casino gambling. Just like in real life, the allure of the electronic slots and blackjack, the spin of the roulette wheel, the baccarat table, keno, bingo, live-dealer games, and more are universal.
But aside from the hundreds of fair-iGaming-certified RNG amusements made by the best casino software brands in the business, it’s extra alluring to bet with Ethereum. Unlike gambling with fiat currency (i.e. USD, CAD, etc.), gambling with Ethereum has the added advantage of consistent appreciation. And every gambler appreciates that! Who wouldn’t want to keep winning after they’ve won?
The best online casinos all accept Ethereum for both deposits and withdrawals, and all the sites listed below are time-tested, trustworthy, and reputable.
Top 3 Online Casinos Accepting Ethereum (ETH) In 2024
Bovada Casino
100% up to $3,000
Slots.lv
500% up to $5,000
Cafe Casino
350% up to $2,500
Online Ethereum Sports Betting
Online sports betting has been picking up steam across America ever since the PASPA law was overturned in 2018. Now that Vegas isn’t the only game in town, more than half of all US States have already legalized domestic online sportsbook operations.
Of course, in most states, these are limited to players aged 21+, and the betting boards are always geofenced. If you’re following your team from out of state (or literally following your team from state to state), you won’t be able to bet on them. And even when you can, betting with ETH is out of the question at domestic books.
Legal online sportsbooks located offshore, though, have all the odds and lines you expect, there are no GPS restrictions, and you can bet on sports with Ethereum any time you want.
Best Online Sportsbooks For Betting With Ethereum (ETH) In 2024
Bovada Sportsbook
50% Max $1,000
MyBookie
50% Max $1,000
BetOnline
100% Up To $1,000
Online Ethereum Poker Sites
If you want to play legit online poker – legally and safely – you have lots of options. At least, you do if you stick with the trusted offshore poker rooms we recommend. (Very few US states offer local Internet-based poker, and there’s very little legislative movement on the horizon to change that.)
Luckily, you can ante up and play your hand without waiting. Legal online Ethereum poker rooms feature cash games, “Zone Poker” events, small scale Sit-N-Go poker tournaments, and major online poker tournaments with thousands of players and six-figure final pots.
And since the goal of poker is growing your pot, Ethereum is a great way to make sure that happens long after the chips fall where they may – i.e. right into your pocket!
Top-Rated Online Poker Rooms Accepting Ethereum (ETH) In 2024
Bovada Poker
100% Max $500
Everything You Need To Know About Gambling With Ethereum
How To Bet With Ethereum Online
Once you buy Ethereum and transfer it to your betting site, there’s no real trick to online gambling with ETH coins. However, actually buying the stuff – and then transferring it to your favorite casino, sportsbook, or poker room – might be a challenge for those new to the cryptocurrency market.
Fortunately, it’s not too complicated.
All you have to do is sign up with a legit Ethereum exchange like Coinbase, link your bank account or credit/debit card, and then buy as much ETH as you want. (Alternatively, you can buy Ether using a dedicated crypto store like that found in the popular Atomic Wallet app for iPhone/Android.)
Once that’s done, it’s a simple matter to move your ETH to any site featured in our legal online gambling reviews. This is explained fully in the next section.
Making Ethereum Gambling Deposits
Ethereum deposits are same-day guaranteed and can never be interrupted or interfered with. This makes them an ideal betting banking option.
However, it must be noted that Ethereum is the slowest of all online gambling-friendly crypto coins at the sites we recommend.
- Follow any link here to a legit online gambling site that supports the ETH crypto coin.
- Click or tap the “Sign Up” or “Join Now” button and enter in all required information to create your account. Be sure to use your real information, as all the best sites use bank-grade KYC (Know Your Customer) standards to keep your account secure.
- At your site’s Cashier menu, select the Ethereum/ETH option from your site’s crypto deposit menu.
- Copy down your site’s ETHEREUM SENDING ADDRESS. You can also choose to activate an optional online gambling bonus at this time (recommended).
- Open your Ethereum wallet or ETH exchange account, choose the “Send” option, and paste the above Ether address into the recipient field.
- Enter the Ethereum amount you wish to transfer to your gambling account and submit your deposit.
Requesting Ethereum Gambling Payouts
For Ethereum withdrawals, the process is the same as for making deposits, only in reverse. Remember that in order to withdraw ETH gambling winnings, you must have a valid ETH wallet or Ethereum exchange account.
Once that’s done, do this:
- Head over to your site’s Cashier page and choose Ethereum/ETH from the list of supported cryptocurrency withdrawal methods.
- Open your ETH wallet/exchange account and select the “Receive” option.
- Copy down your unique ETHEREUM RECEIVING ADDRESS.
- At your gambling site, paste the above ETH address into the appropriate field, along with the amount of money you’d like to withdraw.
- Submit your payout request.
Note: If you wish to withdraw funds using a different cryptocurrency method or non-crypto payout option, you can. All deposit methods are compatible with all supported payout methods at the best betting sites.
Ethereum Online Gambling Bonuses
One of the chief reasons online gamblers choose to deposit with Ether or other popular crypto currency options is because most sites give players enhanced gambling bonuses for doing so.
In most cases, crypto betting bonuses are worth 2X-3X times more than typical bonus options, with potentially thousands more dollars in deposit-match free plays/free spins.
Even better, the bonus wagering requirements associated with Ethereum deposits are just as low and easy to meet as those for non-crypto deposit promotions.
For these reasons, if you want to maximize the amount of free bets you can make online, Ethereum/crypto gambling is going to be your best bet.
Ethereum Online Gambling Speeds And Fees
Speeds
While Ether is a useful and largely beneficial payment option at legal online gambling sites, it’s not always the best crypto choice. There are two reasons why. The first is speed. Compared to other supported cryptocurrencies, ETH has the slowest transfer speeds. And we mean slowest.
Whereas most crypto betting options clear in 10-20 minutes or so (although Bitcoin transfers can take 30+ minutes on occasion), Ethereum blockchain verification takes at least 60-120 minutes.*
Now, for most kinds of gambling, this isn’t actually a problem, and it’s still a heck of a lot faster than getting a Visa, Mastercard, or American Express gambling transaction interrupted by the UIGEA law. Still, it’s something to consider.
*The ETH speed issue should be resolved with the 2023 Ethereum 2.0 hard fork. Once Ethereum transitions to Proof-of-Stake (PoS) like Cardano or Solana, its speeds and fees (see below) should improve dramatically.
Fees
The other – and probably bigger – drawback of using Ethereum to bet online is the fact that Ether is the most expensive crypto platform out there in terms of transaction costs.
Because the Ether network is so widely used and still uses a PoW framework, the network can get “crowded” in a hurry. The more crowded a PoW network, the slower and more expensive it is. Ethereum can incur native blockchain fees of 10% (or more) of the total amount of ETH being transferred.
For online gamblers, this can have a detrimental effect on the bottom line, so be sure to consider this when making an ETH deposit or requesting and ETH payout.
Limits
Ethereum transactions have no limits as such. You can send or receive as much ETH as you want. But depending on your site, there will be minimum and maximum Ethereum transfer limits. Because of the aforementioned speeds and fees, these limits are usually going to be higher for ETH than any other legal crypto gambling option.
Usually, these limits only affect deposit and withdrawal minimums. For example, while Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, or Litecoin transfers might carry a minimum of $20, ETH transfers might carry a minimum of $50. For withdrawals, the same concept applies.
Your legal gambling site will always clearly post all ETH transfer limits so there’s never any confusion.
Ethereum Basics
Launched in July 2015, Ethereum is one of the “old school” cryptocurrencies, second only to Bitcoin in market share. However, as a platform, Ethereum is actually the most-used crypto on the planet. That’s because the ETH network is used by countless other cryptocurrencies and crypto projects.
While Bitcoin was the first crypto, Ethereum was the first crypto to really show what crypto can do. All the major third-gen cryptocurrencies (Cardano, Solana, Avalanche, etc.) are predicated on streamlining the technical aspects of Ether while maintaining its utility.
Ethereum, like Bitcoin, is one of the only “safe” cryptocurrencies for conservative investors, and it has exceptional value potential for short- and medium-term risk-takers, too.
Before you can use ETH to gamble online, you’ve got to buy Ethereum. And to make sure the USD-ETH process isn’t a gamble (save that for your online casinos, sportsbooks, and poker sites), you need to make sure you buy the stuff only through the most reputable online cryptocurrency exchanges or storefronts (such as Atomic Wallet).
Our favorite ETH exchanges are listed below. Each service is licensed, regulated, and offers fast and secure crypto trading options for Ethereum and hundreds of other popular coins:
The Most Reputable Ethereum exchanges for 2024 are:
There are two basic ways to store Ethereum. The first option is to store ETH at the exchange where you bought it. This makes it easy to trade and sell your Ethereum, and it’s the best option for day traders and swing traders.
The second option is to store Ethereum in a private Ethereum wallet. This is the most secure avenue and is considered the best practice for anyone more interested in long-term investment. As online gamblers interested in maximizing our money, we prefer the second option.
As a rule, if we’re buying crypto to bet online, we will move that crypto into our gambling accounts as soon as we get it. Any crypto we aren’t using to gamble with, we move into our private wallets.
Of course, to make matters as complex as possible, there are three kinds of crypto wallets in which you can store ETH: software wallets, hardware wallets, and paper wallets.
Because we don’t advocate using Ethereum paper wallets in any circumstance except for long-term cold storage, we’re only going to discuss the best ETH software wallets and best ETH hardware wallets for online gambling:
Best Ethereum Software Wallets For Legal Online Gambling
Crypto software wallets allow you to keep cryptographic custody of your “keys” in a straightforward user-friendly way. This is the best option for those who want a balance of security and convenience, and it’s what we recommend first and foremost for online gambling.
The following ETH “hot wallets” are the best Ethereum wallets for 2024:
- Atomic Wallet
- Exodus Wallet
- Guarda Wallet
- Jaxx Wallet
*Please only download Ethereum online wallets/Ethereum software wallets from their official developer pages. Never use third-party links or mirrors.
Best Ethereum Hardware Wallets For Legal Online Gambling
Hardware crypto wallets are USB-enabled devices that allow you to safely store your crypto completely off the Internet but still access your coins relatively quickly when you want to trade or sell them.
These aren’t the fastest options for online gambling deposits, but they offer an added layer of security and are best for those who want to keep their crypto mostly offline for long-term storage.
The other drawback of hardware Ethereum wallets is that they aren’t free. The cheapest entry-level wallets made by the most reputable brands are about $60, with the more robust versions costing anywhere from $120 to $180 or so.
These are the most reputable makes and models of hardware ETH wallets on the market as of 2024:
- Ledger: Ledger Nano S, Ledger Nano X
- Trezor: Trezor One, Trezor Model T
*Please only buy Ethereum hardware wallets from their official manufacturer stores. Never buy ETH hardware wallets from third party retailers, secondhand stores, or private classified ads.
Ethereum Gambling Pros And Cons
By now, you probably have a pretty good idea about the pros and cons of using Ethereum to gamble online legally. However, if you scrolled to the bottom of this page in hopes for a TL;DR, we got you. Here are the benefits and negatives of using Ethereum as an online bet funding method as of 2024:
