Bitcoin casinos that accept Lightning Network payments

In the Bitcoin network, the transaction processing speed very rarely goes higher than six transactions per second. The average speed has been about 3-4 transfers per second over the last year. Payment system VISA, by comparison, is known to process about 1,700 transactions per second.

This issue would not even be that evident if only a few thousand cryptography enthusiasts were using this cryptocurrency. But there are more than 460 million BTC addresses in the world today. The exact number of users is anyone’s guess. It is probably somewhere from several dozen to hundreds of millions of people. Such a user base poses a challenge not only for the network but also for the entire community.

The Bitcoin scalability problem comes from the limited size of a block of transactions. Every block is limited to 1 MB in size. This decision was made on the grounds of security and DDoS protection. However, this and other technical features have been the reason why it takes quite some time to add new transactions to the blockchain.

This issue has basically created a bunch of new cryptocurrencies. We are talking about Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, and several other projects that were initially designed to make crypto transfers faster, cheaper, and more convenient. Such altcoins and hard forks did occasionally improve speed and other things, but neither of them was an adequate solution that would satisfy the community.

Meanwhile, there have been some more elegant ideas. One of these concepts is known as the Lightning Network, which is something like a superstructure for the Bitcoin network. Soft fork SegWit paved the way for the Lightning Network when it changed the BTC transaction format. Today you can see LN payments being slowly integrated on many exchanges and online resources, including popular casinos that accept bitcoin.

Dozens of gaming websites have already made it possible to enjoy bitcoin gambling with payments through the Lightning Network. Some of them are listed on LightningNetworkStores. However, most of these resources are not verified yet so we cannot recommend them for a safe crypto gambling experience.

At the same time, there are several proven bitcoin casinos that allow you to use the Lightning Network for deposits and withdrawals. These BTC casinos have gained some recognition among players and built their reputations. You may want to check out these bitcoin gambling sites first and foremost.

The idea of fast and cheap transactions sounds great in and of itself. But crypto casinos also create special deals and promotions for their users to make gambling with Bitcoin Lightning Network even more fun.

Welcome bonuses

Betplay offers a 200% bonus up to 0.05 BTC on the first deposit. The limit may look really low, but you would hardly succeed to make a bigger one-time transfer in the Lightning Network any time soon. The wagering requirement is 30x while the max bet is 0.001 BTC ($45-50).

Thunderpick provides a 5% bonus up to the equivalent of €500. This bonus should be played through only three times in order to turn it to cash. It is 10-20 times lower than in most bitcoin casinos.

Other deposit bonuses

Users of Betplay.io can get up to 0.02 BTC thanks to a 100% reload bonus on the deposits made with help of the Lightning Network. In this case, the wagering requirement would be 35x.

VIP programs

Crypto casino Thunderpick has a VIP club for high rollers accessible only by invitation. If you are a VIP member, you are going to get exclusive gifts and bonuses, priority withdrawals, zero fees, increased betting limits, personal manager, and other cool privileges.

Lightning Network is a so-called layer 2 protocol for the Bitcoin network. The Lightning Network is designed to ensure fast, cheap, and private transactions. These improvements are achieved through smart contracts and payment channels.

In the case of regular transactions, BTC are directly transferred from one address to another. The Lightning Network has special channels for that purpose. Each channel is established between two addresses, and there are two transactions that are saved in the main Bitcoin network for each channel. One of them is opening a channel for two addresses, and the second one is closing it.

But it does not mean that you should necessarily have a channel between yourself and a resource if you want, say, to send money from your own address (A) to the address of a crypto casino (B). The Lightning Network has its name for a reason: payments can go through a mesh of multiple channels. For instance, a chain of channels for your payment can look like this:

• A <===> D
• D <===> G
• G <===> Y
• Y <===> B

Even though A and B do not have a common channel, there is a chain of nodes and channels that connects them in the Lightning Network. In that case, payment will go through this chain from address A to address B, passing through each intermediary node according to a smart contract. Meanwhile, these intermediary nodes will not even know that you are sending money through them.

There is one important thing, though. The bitcoins you send will successfully move through this chain only if each of the channels has at least the equivalent amount of your payment. If you want to top up your crypto casino account with a 0.01 BTC LN payment, each of the channels in the chain should have 0.01 BTC or more.

Lightning Network channels

The balance of a channel is set when the channel is created. It is determined by the opening transaction that would be stored in the Bitcoin blockchain. That is why the balance of a Lightning Network payment channel cannot be higher than the sum of cryptocurrency both parties have on their addresses. Either one or both parties can fund the starting amount of the channel. Payments can go in either one or both directions, too.

Furthermore, each of two parties can close their channel at any time. A smart contract will then conduct a closing transaction, saving it to the blockchain. Using the information about the initial and final balances of both parties, this transaction will basically combine all Lightning Network transactions into one transfer on the Bitcoin blockchain.

Transactions are not stored in the blockchain?

One of the important features of Bitcoin is that its transactions are grouped into blocks that are later saved to the blockchain. The current blockchain has information about all the transfers that have ever been made in this network. It cannot be modified or falsified, and it is often seen as a significant advantage over more traditional payment systems.

The main bulk of Lightning Network payments is conducted off-chain with help of smart contracts. The chain of blocks contains only those transactions that open and close LN channels. This way, it is possible to avoid delays related to the processing of each transfer. They are simply being carried out inside of the channels without any additional records.

Simpler solutions

Sometimes regular users do not even have to create any channels to take advantage of LN payments in crypto casino games. Some Lightning wallets offer users their own dedicated channels. Technically, the wallet provider would store user funds, but users would still be able to send, receive, and withdraw money.

Since such custodial services get access to your funds, you should probably be careful with them. Impeccable reputation and absence of unresolved complaints may help you choose a decent wallet for bitcoin casino Lightning Network payments.

More is better

As the Lightning Network gets more members, the mesh of channels expands and intertwines. It would not be necessary to create a new channel for payment, at least in many cases. The system would automatically find the shortest route through the network of channels from the initial sender to the final recipient.

Some places may try an experiment and allow you to pay for your meal using Bitcoin. It would usually bring along some inconveniences for both the business and the client. How long will it take to confirm the transaction? How much miner fees will you pay? How stable will the intermediary services be? Most people would find it much easier to pay with a card or cash.

Even though it is not as critical for cryptocurrency casino games, payment delays and high fees may still make you wonder about the alternatives. In the meantime, these issues will largely disappear or diminish once a fair number of crypto casinos start implementing Lightning Network payments — at least on the part of cryptocurrency.

The possibilities offered by the Lightning Network are quite appealing in many areas, including crypto casino gambling. This protocol has the potential to bring users back all those advantages that were initially promised (and provided) by Bitcoin. It only needs to get a proper amount of members and nodes. Below you will find the main benefits of the Lightning Network in cryptocurrency gambling.

Instant deposits and withdrawals

You do not need confirmation from the network when you make a Lightning Network transaction, as opposed to regular BTC transfers. Payments move through the channels instantly, getting to the recipient within moments. The payment data are saved to the Bitcoin blockchain only when one of the parties decides to close the channel.

We should mention that the network of channels might be too small to allow users to send money to their crypto casino accounts through already existing nodes, at least at the initial stage of LN development. In that case, a direct channel to the gambling site will solve the problem.

Saving on miner fees

In the main Bitcoin network, users are paying miners for the confirmation and formation of transaction blocks. The process of mining implies solving complex mathematical problems, large energy consumption, and things like that. When there are too many transactions, the cost of a transfer may soar to uncomfortable numbers.

How does the Lightning Network deal with all that? Individual LN payments are not stored in the blockchain, so the sender simply avoids paying miner fees. They are paid only when you open and close the channel.

The Lightning Network stipulates node fees, though. They are paid if your money is sent to the receiver through a chain of channels. But these amounts are intended to be really low — much lower than Bitcoin transaction fees.

If you deposit and withdraw money from a Lightning Network casino account regularly, it can make a big difference. Using Lightning Network payments, users would be able to save on transfers and spend less money on bitcoin casino games.

No transactions tracking

The idea of anonymous bitcoin gambling sounds quite appealing for many online gamblers. The Lightning Network allows you to add a whole new level of privacy to your transactions. Since transfers are not stored in the blockchain, marketing companies would not be able to monitor your preferences using special analytics software.

Tiny bets

Bitcoin casino gambling buffs who are not eager to wager large amounts of money will certainly like this one.

Today, it is not advisable to make very small transactions in the Bitcoin network because the cost of such a transfer may easily be higher than the amount you are sending. The Lightning Network would allow playing crypto casino games with tiny amounts of cryptocurrency thanks to very small commission fees. And if you have a direct channel with the casino, there would be no such fees at all.

Developers and scientists are actively looking for (and finding) some weaker aspects of the Lightning Network concept. It is mostly done to make the network more robust in the face of current and future challenges. But some of these aspects may make you wonder whether it is a good idea to use Lighting Network payments for bitcoin games and crypto casino gambling.

No big transactions?

In 2018, Diar.co have shared their research as to Lightning Network payments. They pointed out the percentages of successfully completed transactions according to the amount being sent. Allegedly, only transfers under $0.03 had 100% completion rate. If the amount had been set as $5 or higher, the chance of failure would have been about 50%, according to the analysis. If you had tried to send as many as $490, you would then have had about 1% probability of a successful transaction.

The information disappointed not only high rollers, but average bitcoin casino players, too. Later, the analysis was criticized for incorrect calculation methods which had supposedly brought fundamentally flawed results. The LN proponents also emphasized that the network had just been deployed and thus had a small number of nodes.

According to Decrypt, the average capacity of Lightning Network payment channels was $331 in September 2020. But in 2022, River released a report that noted a 98.7% success rate for their LN payments, although with an average transaction size of $46. As we can see, the network got better as it grew. This means Bitcoin gambling buffs can make bigger deposits with the LN today.

Centralization

In February 2020, a group of cybersecurity experts published interesting research. They came to the conclusion that Bitcoin Lightning Network becomes extremely centralized as it grows. This goes against one of the core principles of cryptocurrency ideology.

They stated that a small percentage of LN nodes would accumulate the larger part of bitcoins over time. There were 10% of the nodes that owned 80% of the cryptocurrency. Furthermore, the inequality in distribution was allegedly getting sharper over time, too.

Vulnerabilities

Not that long ago, Israeli scientists discovered a way to steal bitcoins by overloading the blockchain. This vulnerability is based on the mechanism that ensures the correct sending of payments across several Lightning channels and certain time limits in smart contracts.

They informed the developers of the three main Lightning Network implementations about this discovery before making it public.

Humble choice of casinos

So far, the Lightning Network is not very popular in the crypto community. As there is not that much demand, crypto casinos are not eager to implement LN payments on their websites. Players that want to play casino games using Bitcoin Lightning Network have a relatively small choice of crypto gambling sites.

Sadly, many regular BTC wallets do not support Lightning Network. Hence, you need to find a specialised wallet that allows you to transact and view your Bitcoin balance on the network. In this section, we analyse some of the things you need to know in picking a good wallet. 

Custody

There are two main types of wallets for LN - a self-custody wallet and a custodial wallet. The self-custody or non-custodial wallet allows you to control your BTC, with 100% control of your funds destination and location. You also have total control over your private keys.

A custodial wallet is like a bank account. The service is usually provided by centralised crypto exchanges. They do not let you interact directly with the wallets, so you don’t have full control over the funds. The exchanges sign transactions for validity as they have custody of the private keys. 

A new model of wallets which is interoperable with LN has emerged recently. With this model, the BTC can be held by a single custodian or a group. This is available through technologies like Cashu, Liquid, and Fedimint. 

Ease of Use

Your ability to use a LN wallet perfectly depends on your experience with the network. For beginners, a custodial wallet is the best and it lets you explore with little amounts and discover the basics. 

A non-custodial wallet is less easy to use. Hence, it’s suitable for intermediate or advanced users who prefer something with higher privacy and security. 

Cost and Fees

Although the payment fees on LN are usually inexpensive, you should still consider costs. Generally, all self custody wallets come with added fees. For example, you may encounter transaction fees when payment channels lack the liquidity needed to complete payments. 

Common LN Wallets

Here are examples of popular wallets that support the Lightning Network: 

• Custodial Wallet: Speed, BitMex, Blockchain.com, Binance, and Bitgo
• Non-custodial Wallet: Exodus, Wasabi, Electrum, and Trezor One

Everything can easily go wrong when you play on the wrong platforms. You could have difficulty making payments, struggle with playing on mobile, or even find it impossible to reach the support team for help. Therefore, you must pick your casino carefully if you want to have a great gambling experience. 

While selecting a suitable LN casino is not difficult, it could be time-consuming or even confusing for newbies who don’t know what to do. The first thing you must do is identify the casinos that support Bitcoin Lightning Network. After that, you will have to evaluate different areas of the casino. Below, we explain all the factors you must consider in picking a good LN casino. 

Licensing 

One of the biggest pointers to the reputation of an online casino is the license with which it operates. The presence of a license signifies that the gambling site has been authorised to offer its services by the license issuer (regulator). It also means the casino follows guidelines and policies laid down by the issuer. 

A casino operating without a license cannot be trusted. It means the site is not regulated and not accountable to any authority. Such platforms cannot be expected to treat players fairly or offer safe games. Hence, you must always play at only licensed and regulated websites to ensure your safety. 

Furthermore, it’s important to check the authority regulating the casino. Gambling operators regulated by reputable authorities are less-likely to violate safe gaming rules or treat players poorly. When considering online casinos, it’s recommended to go for those licensed by the government-authorised organisation in your country or jurisdiction. 

However, some countries do not have online gambling regulators or do not license BTC casinos. In that case, you can go for other sites that are licensed by other reputable offshore regulators such as Curacao, MGA, Isle of Man, UKGC, Gibraltar, and Kahnawake. 

Security

Generally, when a casino is licensed by a reputable organisation, it’s most likely secure. Most gambling authorities have strict security policies which their licensees must abide by. For example, all top regulators require their casinos to utilise SSL encryption on their websites. 

However, it’s still important to check the security systems of these platforms by yourself. This will help you identify and avoid casinos that may be violating safety policies. Always ensure that the gambling website has a valid SSL certificate. Also, take a look at the privacy policy of the site to see how your information is processed and stored. 

Games Collection & Software

After confirming that the casino is licensed and secure, you should explore the games lobby. Check if the casino offers the kinds of games you love. Also, check if there are many other categories for you to try out. Look out for slots, live casinos, table games, crash games, video poker, bingo, scratchcards, and lotteries. 

Do not forget to view the software providers powering the casino lobby. Some software developers have distinguished themselves by releasing high-quality and interesting games. Their games are also known to be fair and certified by third-party labs. Examples of these developers are Evolution, Play’N GO, Pragmatic Play, QuickSpin, Yggdrasil, Playtech, Netent, Thunderkick, Betsoft, Amatic, Ezugi, NoLimit City, and many others. 

Payment System

Even if you’re satisfied with using Lightning Network for payments, you should also review the overall banking system of the casino. Verify how many altcoins are accepted for payments. The best LN casinos also accept ETH, LTC, DOGE, USDT, and many others. 

If you also like to make payments in fiat currencies, you may want to consider casinos that support traditional banking methods. Firstly, find out if the casino supports a fiat currency you can make payments in. Then, confirm if it features debit/cards, e-wallets, or bank transfer methods you can use. 

Bonuses & Promotions

These days, bonuses and promos have become a vital aspect of the online casino experience. They help you have extra gaming sessions and add more excitement to your gameplay. If you want this added excitement, never forget to examine the promotions page of any gambling site you want to play at. 

Look for popular bonuses like welcome deposits, free spins, reload bonuses, cashback, rakeback, and loyalty rewards. Additionally, take time to review the casino’s bonus terms and conditions. Consider terms like the wagering requirements, bonus validity periods, maximum bet amount, maximum cashout, etc. 

Customer Service

The customer service system is another important thing to consider when choosing casinos. A good gambling site must have an efficient support system to help players resolve issues on the platform easily. 

Always pick casinos that have 24/7 live chat contact channels. This will ensure that you can get help quickly at any time of the day. Furthermore, there must be an easily accessible email on the site where you can send in sensitive queries. 

An FAQ or Help centre is also necessary on every betting website. This page provides players with answers and solutions to common issues that they face, eliminating the need for them to contact the support agents at all times.

Top casinos offer additional support channels like Telephone, Facebook, WhatsApp, and Telegram.

Mobile Compatibility & User Experience

In today’s world, mobile-optimization for gaming sites is no longer optional. A good casino must be easily accessible on different kinds of mobile devices, whether Android or iOS. Make sure you test the casino sites on your mobile browser and see how well it works. You can also check the availability of a downloadable casino app for your device. 

Furthermore, take time to evaluate the overall user-experience on the website. Consider how easy it is to navigate the pages, find and load games, make payments, and do other necessary tasks. You may also want to examine the visual appeal of the website. 

If BTC transaction rate has been a challenge for you, Lightning Network is undoubtedly the solution you need. Not only does it improve transaction speed, it also reduces costs by cutting off miners’ fees. This also means you can deposit small amounts at your convenience without having to worry about paying too much fees. 

What’s more, LN boosts the level of privacy in Bitcoin gambling. There’s no tracking, so you can experience a better level of anonymity at crypto casinos while also enjoying a large collection of games and bonuses. 

All you have to do is choose a good LN casino to gamble at. Make sure the site is licensed and secure. Furthermore, create a gambling budget before you start playing games. Do everything possible to stay within your budget and utilise responsible gambling tools when necessary. Best of luck as you experience the swiftness of LN casinos.