Analysis
Photo: Aleksandr Galichkin / UnsplashWhat the documents show
The registers hold what is true of an operator today. These pieces hold the working: what changed in a licence record, what a clause actually permits, what a figure means once you know how it was counted. Every number here traces to a document named at the foot of the page it appears on.
All 110 pieces, newest first
· 6 minHow do bitcoin ATMs work? Fees, state caps and the scam numbers from the FBI and FTCA bitcoin ATM sells bitcoin for cash and sends it to a wallet address the customer supplies. CoinFlip's terms price purchases at a 21.90% transaction fee. The FBI's IC3 recorded 13,460 complaints and $389 million in losses tied to crypto ATMs in 2025, and California caps kiosk fees at the greater of $5 or 15%. · 6 minCan you buy crypto with a credit card? What four exchanges and three card issuers sayIn the US, Coinbase, Kraken and Gemini accept debit cards, not credit cards, for crypto purchases. Crypto.com's Pay on-ramp lists credit cards at a 3.99% fee. Where a credit card purchase goes through, Chase, Capital One and American Express agreements class it as a cash advance with a 5% fee, minimum $5 or $10. · 6 minCoinbase scams: how the impersonation calls work, and what Coinbase says it will never askMost Coinbase scams are impersonation: a caller or text posing as Coinbase support pushes the customer to move coins to a "safe" wallet. Coinbase's help centre lists what its staff never ask for. In May 2025 Coinbase disclosed that bribed support contractors had taken customer data, including government ID images, for under 1% of monthly transacting users, which gave scammers real details to quote. · 6 minCoinbase vs Coinbase Wallet: a custodial exchange account and a self-custody wallet, and the Base app renameCoinbase is a custodial exchange account where crypto is "stored on the platform"; Coinbase Wallet is a self-custody app where Coinbase "never has access to your recovery phrase". The wallet's App Store notes called it Base app for months, and since version 30.11 say "We're now Coinbase Wallet." · 6 minCoinbase vs Gemini: licences, fees, custody and the Earn collapse, from the documentsBoth hold New York charters, but most US Gemini users now contract with Gemini Moonbase, LLC, which is not on the NYDFS list. Gemini's ActiveTrader fees start at 0.600% maker and 1.200% taker. Coinbase's record includes a $50 million NYDFS penalty and a 2025 insider data theft; Gemini's includes the Earn freeze of 340,000 investors. · 6 minCoinbase withdrawal time, fees and how to cash out, from the Coinbase Help CenterSelling crypto to a Coinbase cash balance is instant. Moving that cash to a bank takes 1 to 5 business days by ACH, about 30 minutes by instant cashout, or a same-day wire for $25, per the Coinbase Help Center on 14 October 2026. · 6 minCrypto debit card fees compared, from eight issuers' own fee pagesEight crypto debit cards had fee pages that could be read on 14 October 2026. Foreign transaction fees run from 0% to 3%, ATM fees from no card fee to $3 plus 2%, and cashback from none stated to 3% with a $10,000 annual membership. Spending crypto on any of them is a sale for US tax purposes. · 5 minDo you pay taxes on crypto before withdrawal? What the IRS says is taxable, and what Form 1099-DA reportsNo tax is due because crypto is withdrawn. The IRS taxes a sale, an exchange or another disposal; moving crypto between wallets you own is a non-taxable event, though a network fee paid in crypto counts as a disposal. Brokers report gross proceeds on Form 1099-DA for sales from 1 January 2025 and basis for certain sales from 1 January 2026. · 6 minGemini credit card review: the rewards, the 16.74% to 34.74% APR and what WebBank's agreement bansThe Gemini Credit Card is a WebBank-issued Mastercard paying 4% back on gas, EV and transit up to $300 a month, 3% on dining, 2% on groceries and 1% elsewhere, in crypto. No annual or foreign transaction fee; purchase APR 16.74% to 34.74%. The agreement bars buying crypto and gambling with it. · 6 minHow much bitcoin does Satoshi have? The genesis block, the Patoshi estimate and what the chain showsNobody can prove how much bitcoin Satoshi Nakamoto holds. The widely cited figure of about 1 million BTC is an estimate from Sergio Lerner's 2013 Patoshi research, which he described as made "at eyesight". The genesis address holds 107.66 BTC by Blockchain.com's count, 50 of it unspendable. · 6 minHow much bitcoin is left to mine, and when will the last bitcoin be mined?At block 971,395 on 14 October 2026 the issuance schedule has released 20,098,112.5 BTC, leaving about 901,887 BTC, or 4.3% of the cap, still to be mined. The block subsidy reaches zero at block 6,930,000, which at the 10-minute target lands around the year 2140. · 6 minHow to buy bitcoin with Cash App: the steps, the 0% to 2% fee and the spread, from Cash App's help pagesTo buy bitcoin on Cash App, open the Bitcoin tile on the Money tab, tap Buy, pick an amount and a funding source and confirm. Cash App's fee runs from 2.0% on buys under $500 to 0% from $2,000, and a spread of up to 0.75% (or 1%, on a second help page) sits inside the price. · 6 minHow to buy bitcoin in the US: the steps, and the fees Coinbase, Kraken, Cash App, Robinhood and PayPal publishBuying bitcoin in the US means opening a verified account at a broker or exchange, funding it, placing a buy and, optionally, withdrawing to a wallet. Fees published on 14 October 2026 range from 0% to 2.20% of the trade at five US apps, and most add a spread on top. One bitcoin is 100,000,000 satoshis, so any dollar amount can be bought. · 6 minHow to buy Solana in the US: which exchanges list SOL, what they charge, and what moving it to a wallet costsCoinbase, Kraken, Robinhood, PayPal and Gemini each list SOL on their own pages, read on 14 October 2026; Cash App's crypto disclosures cover bitcoin and stablecoins, not SOL. Buy fees follow each platform's general crypto schedule. On-chain, Solana charges 5,000 lamports per signature, and the refundable rent-exempt minimum is being cut by up to 90% in five steps from September 2026. · 6 minHow to buy USDT, which exchanges list it, which network to pick and what it costsIn the US, Coinbase and Gemini list USDT and Robinhood shows it for market data only. Tether sells directly only to verified customers with a 100,000 USD minimum. In the EEA, Coinbase, Kraken and Binance have restricted or delisted it under MiCA. The network picked at withdrawal decides whether the tokens arrive. · 6 minHow do you sell bitcoin? Exchanges, broker apps, P2P and ATMs, with each provider's own feesBitcoin is sold through an exchange, a broker app, a peer-to-peer market or a bitcoin ATM. Stated fees on 14 October 2026 run from 0% plus a spread of up to 0.75% on a Cash App sale of $2,000 or more to 4.99% at a CoinFlip kiosk. Every sale is a capital gain or loss event for US tax. · 6 minHow to send bitcoin to another wallet, and how to find a bitcoin wallet address, step by stepSending bitcoin means pasting the recipient's address, choosing the amount and fee, and signing. Coinbase's web flow has 6 steps and Trezor Suite's has 4. Addresses start with 1, 3, bc1q or bc1p. Mempool.space recommended 1 sat/vB on 14 October 2026, and bitcoin.org says a transaction "cannot be reversed". · 6 minHow to set up a bitcoin wallet, step by step from the Blockstream and Trezor guidesA self-custody bitcoin wallet is set up by installing the app, generating keys, writing down a 12 or 24 word recovery phrase and checking it. Blockstream's app guide lists 4 steps; Trezor says its hardware setup takes about 15 minutes and wipes the device after 16 wrong PINs. · 6 minHow to spend bitcoin with a card, a BitPay invoice, Lightning or PayPalBitcoin is spent four ways in practice: a crypto debit card, a payment processor invoice such as BitPay, a Lightning payment, or PayPal's checkout with crypto. Each sells the bitcoin, and the IRS treats each payment as a disposal on which gain or loss is recognised. · 6 minHow to transfer bitcoin to Cash App: finding your address, on-chain vs Lightning, and the $10,000 weekly capTo transfer bitcoin to Cash App, open the Bitcoin tile, tap Deposit bitcoin and copy the address, which changes after every deposit. On-chain deposits are capped at $10,000 in any 7 days and Lightning at $999. Cash App takes BTC only. · 6 minHow to withdraw bitcoin from Cash App: speeds, fees, minimums and selling to dollarsCash App sends bitcoin to an outside wallet at three speeds. Standard is free, takes 24 hours or less and needs at least 0.001 BTC; Rush and Priority charge a network fee plus up to $2 or $3. Selling to dollars costs 0% to 2.0% plus a spread, and the cash-out to a bank is free or 0.5% to 2.5%. · 6 minIs bitcoin safe? The protocol, the custody risk and the scams, by the documentsBitcoin's protocol is secured by proof of work and has produced 971,395 blocks since January 2009. The money people lose goes through custody failures and scams: the FBI's IC3 recorded 181,565 crypto-related complaints and $11.366 billion in losses in 2025, about $7.2 billion of it investment fraud. · 6 minIs XRP a stablecoin? The GENIUS Act definition, Ripple's RLUSD and why bitcoin is not one eitherXRP is not a stablecoin. The GENIUS Act defines a payment stablecoin as one whose issuer must redeem it for a fixed amount of money; XRP and bitcoin have no such issuer and float on supply and demand. Ripple's dollar stablecoin is RLUSD, with $2,460.7 million circulating on 8 October 2026. · 6 minKraken vs Binance: who can use each, what they charge and what regulators settledBinance.com must keep a "complete exit from the United States" under its 2023 Treasury settlement; Americans use the separate Binance.US, unavailable in 16 states and regions. Kraken serves US residents except in Maine and New York. Binance's entry spot fee is 0.100%; Kraken Pro's is 0.40% maker and 0.80% taker. · 6 minLedger Nano X review from Ledger's own pages, specs, price, Ledger Recover and two incidentsThe Ledger Nano X lists at US$99 on Ledger's US shop, read 14 October 2026, with an ST33J2M0 chip rated CC EAL5+, Bluetooth 5.2 and a 5 hour battery. Ledger Recover is a paid, optional key backup. Ledger's 2020 customer-data breach and 2023 Connect Kit attack did not break the device; both fed theft through phishing and malicious signing. · 6 minLedger Recover explained: how the 3 encrypted fragments, the ID checks and the subscription work, per Ledger's own documentsLedger Recover is an opt-in subscription, provided by Coincover, that encrypts a copy of the seed inside the device, splits it into three fragments held by Coincover, Ledger and EscrowTech, and releases two of them after two independent identity checks. Unpaid subscriptions are suspended after 3 months and fragments deleted after 9 more. · 6 minLedger vs Trezor, compared on chips, open source, Ledger Recover, prices and coin supportLedger and Trezor both sell hardware wallets with certified secure elements. Ledger's chip code is closed under its agreement with STMicroelectronics and it sells Ledger Recover, an optional ID-based phrase backup; Trezor publishes its code and sells no comparable service on the pages read. US prices on 14 October 2026 run US$69 to US$399 for Ledger and US$59 to US$249 for Trezor. · 6 minMetaMask vs Trust Wallet: what their terms say on custody, chains, swap fees and incidentsBoth are self-custody wallets whose terms say the company cannot recover a lost phrase. MetaMask publishes a 0.875% swap fee and names 19 networks; Trust Wallet says 100+ blockchains, publishes no standard swap fee, and reimbursed users after a December 2025 extension breach. · 6 minPig butchering scam: how it works, what the FBI and FinCEN report, and the recovery trapPig butchering is a crypto investment scam in which a stranger builds trust over weeks, steers the victim to a fake trading platform, shows invented gains and then takes everything. FinCEN described it in alert FIN-2023-Alert005. The FBI's 2025 report records about $7.2 billion lost to crypto investment fraud. Paid "recovery" offers that follow are a second scam. · 6 minSolana wallets compared: Phantom, Solflare, Backpack, Ledger and Trezor on custody, fees, code and incidentsFive wallets that hold SOL were compared on what their own documents say. Only one, Backpack, puts a swap fee percentage in writing, and its blog contradicts it. Phantom's help centre said in September that its Google or Apple wallets split a key with Phantom; Solflare's terms say it never holds enough to move funds. · 6 minTrust Wallet scams: fake support, approval drainers, and the December 2025 browser extension incident, per Trust Wallet's own pagesTrust Wallet's own security pages describe fake apps, fake support agents, fraudulent airdrops, copycat tokens and approval drainers as the main scams against its users. Separately, a malicious v2.68 browser extension published on 24 December 2025 drained 2,520 addresses, with about $8.5 million in assets impacted, and the reimbursement process drew over 5,000 claims, many of them, Trust Wallet says, false. · 6 minUSDC vs USDT, compared on issuer, reserves, audits, freezes and US lawUSDT is issued by Tether International, S.A. de C.V. in El Salvador and reports quarterly attestations; USDC is issued by Circle and reports monthly. Tether reported $184.6 billion of USDT at 30 June 2026, Circle $72.7 billion of USDC on 12 October 2026. Both can block addresses. · 6 minUSDT TRC-20 wallet: which wallets hold Tether on Tron, what a transfer costs in TRX, and who can freeze itTRC-20 USDT is Tether's token on the Tron blockchain, at contract TR7NHqjeKQxGTCi8q8ZY4pL8otSzgjLj6t. Any wallet that holds Tron addresses can hold it, 16 of 30 on the register name Tron, but sending it costs TRX for energy and bandwidth, and Tether's terms let it freeze any holder's tokens. · 6 minWhat is a bitcoin ETF? The SEC order, the spot funds, their fees and custodiansA spot bitcoin ETF is a trust whose shares trade on a stock exchange and which holds bitcoin with a custodian. The SEC approved 11 such listings on 10 January 2024 in Release No. 34-99306. Sponsor fees on issuers' own pages read on 14 October 2026 range from 0.15% to 0.25%. · 5 minWhat is a bitcoin wallet? Keys, addresses, and who holds them in each wallet typeA bitcoin wallet is software or a device that holds private keys and signs transactions; the coins stay on the blockchain. Bitcoin.org splits wallets by where the keys live. 24 of the 30 wallets on the CryptoGuardz register name Bitcoin among their chains. · 6 minWhat is a hardware wallet? What the chips do, what 8 devices cost, and where they failA hardware wallet is a dedicated device that holds the private keys and signs transactions away from the computer. Eight current Ledger and Trezor models list at US$59 to US$399 on their makers' shops, read 14 October 2026; the failures on record came from firmware, suppliers and phishing. · 6 minWhat is Binance? The companies, the regulators, the 2023 US guilty plea and BNBBinance is a crypto exchange launched in July 2017 by Changpeng Zhao. Its terms, effective 21 July 2026, bind users to three Abu Dhabi Global Market companies. In 2023 Binance Holdings pleaded guilty to US anti-money laundering and sanctions charges and agreed to pay $4,316,126,163 to the DOJ. BNB is the native token of BNB Smart Chain. · 6 minWhat is bitcoin backed by? The whitepaper, proof of work, and what a reserve-backed token addsBitcoin is not backed by a reserve or an issuer's promise. The protocol issues it to miners who spend computing work, under a fixed schedule capped at 20,999,999.9769 BTC, and its value rests on what buyers will pay. Stablecoins such as USDT and USDC are claims on an issuer's reserves; spot bitcoin ETFs are backed by bitcoin held at a custodian. · 6 minWhat does it mean to stake crypto? Proof of stake, lockups, slashing, exchange terms and taxStaking crypto means locking coins in a proof-of-stake network so they back a validator, in return for rewards and at the risk of slashing. Solo Ethereum staking needs 32 ETH. Coinbase takes a 35% commission and Kraken 30% on flexible staking. The IRS taxes rewards as income when you gain control of them. · 5 minWhat is USDC on Coinbase? Circle's dollar token, Coinbase's rewards terms and redemptionUSDC on Coinbase is a dollar token issued by Circle that Coinbase lets customers buy, hold and convert at $1 for $1 with no conversion fee. Coinbase advertises up to 3.75% APY on USDC, which its help centre calls a loyalty program funded by Coinbase, open in the US to Coinbase One members only. · 6 minAB 831, California's sweepstakes casino ban, and what it does to operators, payment processors and affiliatesAB 831, Chapter 623 of 2025, added Penal Code section 337o. Since 1 January 2026 it is a misdemeanor to offer an online dual-currency sweepstakes game in California, and to knowingly support one as a payment processor, geolocation provider, content supplier, platform or media affiliate. Stake.us and Pulsz exclude California in their terms; Chumba and McLuck keep it for free-play only. · 6 minWhat DraftKings Predictions, Fanatics Markets, Robinhood and Underdog prediction markets are, and which exchange is behind eachEach of these apps is a CFTC-registered futures commission merchant that sends trades to a separate CFTC exchange, not a licensed sportsbook. On 13 October 2026 Fanatics Markets listed 22 states and 4 territories with a minimum age of 21, Robinhood required 18 and blocked sports contracts for Maryland, Nevada and Michigan residents, and FanDuel Predicts said it is available in all 50 states. · 7 minIs Kalshi safe? What the CFTC orders, the member agreement and the rulebook say about your moneyKalshi runs a CFTC-designated exchange (since 2020) and an affiliated CFTC-registered clearing house (since 2024), and says customer deposits sit in segregated accounts. None of its documents read on 13 October 2026 claim SIPC or FDIC cover, its terms let it revoke access at its sole discretion, and outcome rulings by its own committee are final. · 6 minIs Polymarket legal in the US? What the CFTC, the states and Polymarket's own terms sayPolymarket runs two products. QCX LLC d/b/a Polymarket US is a CFTC-designated contract market, designated on 9 July 2025, open to verified US adults. The international site, polymarket.com, is run by a Panama-law company whose terms bar US persons from trading. Nevada sued all three Polymarket entities in January 2026, Illinois and Missouri ordered Polymarket US to stop offering sports contracts, and New York sued it on 24 September 2026. · 7 minKalshi taxes and Polymarket taxes, and what the IRS rules say about prediction market winningsKalshi's help centre lists four forms it may issue, 1099-INT, 1099-MISC, 1099-B and 1099-DA, and none of them is described as reporting event contract profits. As of 13 October 2026 the IRS has published no guidance on how event contracts are taxed, and the Treasury's 2026-2027 guidance plan does not list the topic. · 6 minPolymarket fees and Kalshi fees explained, with the formulas and worked examplesKalshi and both Polymarket products price taker fees on the same curve, rate x contracts x price x (1 - price), so fees peak at 50 cents. On 100 contracts at 50 cents Kalshi charges $1.75, Polymarket's international exchange $0 to $1.75 by category and Polymarket US $1.74. · 7 minPolymarket vs Kalshi, compared on regulator, who can use them, money rails, fees, settlement and state lawsuitsKalshi and Polymarket US are both CFTC-designated contract markets that trade in dollars; polymarket.com is a separate crypto platform, not CFTC-regulated, that blocks US trading. Both US exchanges face the same state gambling fights, including a New York suit against Polymarket US filed on 24 September 2026. · 7 minPolymarket withdrawal time, how to withdraw from Polymarket, and how Kalshi comparesOn polymarket.com a withdrawal is an onchain transfer that Polymarket's developer docs describe as instant and free. The separate Polymarket US app quotes 3 to 4 business days for debit card and ACH, and Kalshi quotes a few hours for debit card, a few business days for bank and 30 minutes for crypto. · 7 minAre gambling winnings taxable in Canada? The CRA's position and the Leblanc and Cohen casesThe CRA says lottery winnings of any amount are not reported or taxed unless they are income from employment, a business or property. The Tax Court held in Leblanc (2006) that over C$5.5 million won on sports lotteries was not business income, and in Cohen (2011) that a lawyer turned poker player could not deduct C$121,991 of losses. · 8 minAre sweepstakes casinos gambling? The prize, chance and consideration test, the dual-currency model and the state bansSweepstakes casinos say free entry removes consideration, one of gambling's three elements. Six states disagree by statute: California, New Jersey, Montana and New York in 2025, Louisiana and Maine in 2026. Florida, Tennessee, Mississippi, Maryland and Connecticut have acted through lawsuits, letters or settlements. Most states have no specific law. · 7 minBetStop, Australia's National Self-Exclusion Register, from ACMA's own pages and the Interactive Gambling ActBetStop is the Australian Government's free National Self-Exclusion Register, launched on 21 August 2023. It bars a registered person from all licensed interactive wagering providers, online and by phone, for a minimum of 3 months up to a lifetime. By 31 March 2026, 59,830 people had registered and 37,247 exclusions were active. · 9 minCan you chargeback a casino deposit or a crypto purchase? What card rules and casino terms sayA chargeback is a card network process that lets a bank reverse a disputed payment. A crypto transfer has no equivalent; the FTC says crypto payments "typically are not reversible". 15 of 24 register casinos show a card route, and the terms read charge players for chargebacks, forfeit winnings or call one a breach. · 8 minCan you deduct gambling losses on your taxes? Itemizing, the 90% rule from 2026 and the records crypto casinos keepUS players can deduct gambling losses only by itemizing on Schedule A, and only up to the winnings they report. From tax year 2026 the deduction is 90% of losses. The IRS requires a diary plus statements; of three crypto casino terms read, none promises a statement, and two make their own logs final. · 7 minCrypto casinos and Australia, from the Interactive Gambling Act, ACMA's blocking figures and the operators' own termsThe Interactive Gambling Act 2001 makes it an offence to provide an online casino to customers in Australia, with 5,000 penalty units per day. ACMA had blocked 1,296 illegal gambling and affiliate sites by August 2025. 12 of the 24 crypto casinos on the CryptoGuardz register bar Australia in their own terms, and 6 of those reserve the balance. · 7 minCrypto tax in India, by the text of sections 115BBH and 194S and the 2025 Act that replaced themIndia taxes income from transferring crypto at a flat 30% under section 115BBH, allowing only the cost of acquisition and no set-off of losses. Section 194S takes 1% TDS on transfers above Rs 10,000 a year, or Rs 50,000 for a specified person. From 1 April 2026 both rules sit in the Income-tax Act 2025. · 8 minCrypto tax in the UK, from HMRC's Cryptoassets Manual, the 2026 to 2027 allowance and the rule on gambling winningsHMRC treats most personal crypto as an asset liable to Capital Gains Tax when it is sold, swapped, spent or given away. Gains above the £3,000 annual allowance are taxed at 18% or 24% from 6 April 2026. Betting winnings themselves are not chargeable gains, but moving crypto in and out of a casino can be. · 9 minFast withdrawal casinos in the UK: what the Gambling Commission's rules say, and what 41 UK-licensed brands publishUK-licensed casinos must pay out without unreasonable delay, may not demand documents at withdrawal that they could have asked for earlier, and since 31 October 2021 may not offer reverse withdrawals. The Gambling Commission reported firms fulfil about 99 percent of requests within 24 to 48 hours. Of 30 live UK brands on the register, one states a time. · 9 minHow are gambling winnings taxed in the US? The IRS text, the 2026 thresholds and the 90% loss ruleThe IRS treats gambling winnings as fully taxable income at ordinary rates, 10% to 37% for 2026. Form W-2G reporting for slots, bingo and keno now starts at $2,000. From tax year 2026, section 165(d) as amended in 2025 lets players deduct only 90% of losses, and only against winnings. · 8 minIndia's Online Gaming Act 2025, section by section, and what it means for offshore crypto casinosThe Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act 2025 bans offering, advertising and processing payments for any online money game, skill or chance, from 1 May 2026. Offering carries up to 3 years or Rs 1 crore. Only 2 of 24 crypto casinos on the CryptoGuardz register name India in their own restricted lists. · 6 minIs bingo gambling? What US state statutes, charitable bingo laws and the UK Gambling Act sayIn law, bingo played for money is gambling. Texas's statute calls it "a specific game of chance", Ohio exempts only bingo run by a licensed charitable organization, and New York's Constitution allows it only for qualifying non-profits. In Great Britain, online bingo needs a remote bingo operating licence from the Gambling Commission. · 8 minIs bitcoin untraceable? What the ledger, casino AML policies and exchange terms showBitcoin is not untraceable. Every transfer sits on a public ledger, and the whitepaper says privacy rests only on keeping addresses unlinked to names. Stake and Shuffle say every crypto deposit and withdrawal runs through Chainalysis, and the DOJ has traced and seized over 94,000 bitcoin in one case. · 8 minIs crypto legal in India? The RBI ban, the 2020 court ruling, the 30% tax and FIU-IND registrationOwning and trading crypto is legal in India. The RBI's 2018 ban on banks serving crypto firms was set aside by the Supreme Court on 4 March 2020, gains are taxed at 30% under a 2022 amendment with 1% TDS on transfers, and since March 2023 exchanges serving Indians must register with FIU-IND or face blocking. · 7 minIs day trading gambling? What the SEC, FINRA, federal law and the published studies sayUnder US law day trading is not gambling: federal statutes carve securities trades out of gambling and bucket shop laws. Regulators still warn about it. The SEC says day traders "typically suffer severe financial losses", FINRA's required disclosure says "Day trading can be extremely risky", and a 2014 study found under 1% reliably profitable. · 7 minIs fantasy football gambling? What federal law, state regulators and the courts say about season-long and daily fantasyFederally, paid fantasy football is outside the UIGEA definition of a bet if prizes are fixed in advance, outcomes turn on skill across several real games, and no result rests on one team or one athlete. States decide the rest: Nevada and Texas's Attorney General call daily fantasy gambling, while New York licenses it. · 8 minIs Kalshi gambling? What the CFTC, the federal courts and the state regulators say about prediction marketsFederally, Kalshi is a CFTC-designated contract market, not a sportsbook. Several states say its sports contracts are unlicensed gambling. As of 9 October 2026 the Third Circuit sided with Kalshi in New Jersey, the Ninth and Sixth Circuits sided with Nevada, Ohio and Tennessee, and New Jersey has asked the Supreme Court to decide. · 6 minIs options trading gambling? What federal law, the OCC disclosure document, FINRA's rules and the loss data sayUnder US law options trading is not gambling: 15 U.S.C. 78bb(a)(3) bars state wagering and bucket shop laws from invalidating any "put, call, straddle, option". The rules still treat it as high risk: brokers must hand over the OCC risk document and approve each options account. India's SEBI found 87.7% of individual options traders lost money in FY26. · 7 minIs PrizePicks gambling? What state regulators, attorneys general and settlements say about pick'em fantasyIt depends on the state. California's Attorney General concluded in July 2025 that daily fantasy, pick'em included, is sports wagering under Penal Code 337a. New York's Gaming Commission settled with PrizePicks for $14,969,688 in 2024 and lists it as a permitted fantasy operator. Maryland bars contests based on a single athlete's performance. · 8 minIs Stake legal in Canada? The Criminal Code, Ontario's market, Kahnawake and Stake's own termsUnder Criminal Code section 207, only a provincial government may conduct and manage online casino games in Canada. Stake holds no provincial registration and is not on iGaming Ontario's list of 49 operators. Its terms, read 9 October 2026, bar Ontario by name and leave the other provinces off the list, putting legality on the player. · 11 minWhat a casino no deposit bonus is, and the clauses that decide whether it can ever be withdrawnA no deposit bonus is credit or free spins given without a deposit, and its terms decide whether any of it can be withdrawn. Clauses read on 9 October 2026 cap winnings at 50 USDT (Wild.io) or 6 mBTC (mBit) after 35x to 40x wagering. Since 19 January 2026, UK-licensed casinos may not set wagering above 10x. · 7 minPlayAlberta and Alberta's new iGaming market, from the iGaming Alberta Act and the government's own releasesPlayAlberta is the online gambling site run for the Government of Alberta, with revenue going to the province's General Revenue Fund. Bill 48, the iGaming Alberta Act, created the Alberta iGaming Corporation and made AGLC the regulator, and the regulated market for private operators opened on 13 July 2026 with 22 sites, reaching 31 by 14 September. · 8 minWhat does RTP mean in slots? The regulator's definition and what 10 studios publishRTP, return to player, is the percentage of all money wagered that a game is designed to pay back over its lifetime. The UK Gambling Commission calls it the designed return shown in the game's rules. Studio game sheets collected by CryptoGuardz cover 9,538 titles with an RTP; the ten studios with most games have medians from 94.5% to 96.99%. · 9 minWhat is a high roller? What crypto casino VIP terms say about rakeback, discretion and big withdrawalsA high roller is a player who stakes large sums, and casinos define the line themselves: Stake's VIP tiers start at US$10,000 wagered. The terms behind VIP perks are discretionary, large wins can be paid in instalments, and checks escalate with size. The UK regulator tightened VIP rules in 2020 after finding schemes masked harm. · 8 minWhat is a seed phrase? The BIP-39 standard, and how 30 wallets handle recoveryA seed phrase is a list of 12 to 24 words, defined by the BIP-39 standard, from which a wallet derives every key it holds. Anyone with the words controls the funds. Of 30 wallets on the register, 11 offer a cloud backup and 3 split recovery with the provider. · 8 minWhat is a casino house edge? The arithmetic, and the edges casinos and studios publishA casino house edge is the share of every bet a game is built to keep over time, and it equals 100% minus the RTP. Stake publishes 1% on Dice, Plinko and Limbo and 2% on Drill. Across 97 video slots on studio game sheets collected by CryptoGuardz, the median edge is 4.7%, from 3% to 6.5%. · 9 minWhat is KYC verification? FATF, FinCEN and EU rules, and when 24 crypto casinos trigger itKYC stands for know your customer, the identity check that FATF Recommendation 10 requires of financial institutions and that US and EU rules write into law. Of 24 crypto casinos on the register, 9 make it a condition of withdrawal, 13 reserve it at discretion and 6 publish a money figure. · 8 minWhat is USDT? Tether's own terms on networks, freezes and casino depositsUSDT is a token Tether issues and redeems, which its terms say is "100% backed" by reserves. Tether lists 13 chains for it, can freeze any holder's tokens, and says it has frozen more than $5 billion. 20 of 24 register casinos list USDT; the network is recorded for 2. · 10 minCS2 gambling sites: what ten skin sites' licences, terms and regulators sayOn 8 October 2026 we read the terms and licence claims of ten CS2 skin gambling sites. None names a gambling regulator or licence number on its own pages. Five sets of terms could be read. Sweden has barred four of the operators and Australia warned a fifth. · 8 minStake revenue: how a crypto casino makes money, from its own published house edgesStake makes money from the house edge on every bet. Its own game pages state a 1% edge on Dice, Crash and Plinko, and its fairness code sets 2% on Drill. Third-party slots carry 4% to 6% on studio sheets. Forbes reported US$4.7 billion of Stake gross revenue for 2024; Stake publishes no accounts. · 7 minWho owns Roobet? The licence holder, the Cyprus agent and the co-founders on recordRoobet is operated by Raw Entertainment B.V., Curacao company 157205, under Curacao licence OGL/2024/687/0427, recorded as Indefinite. Fiat payments go through Raw Entertainment Ltd in Cyprus. Partner announcements name Matt Duea and Anthony Brennan as co-founders, but no register read on 8 October 2026 names Roobet's shareholders. · 8 minWho owns Stake? Ed Craven, Bijan Tehrani and the companies the filings nameStake.com is operated by Medium Rare N.V., Curacao company 145353, and Stake.us by Sweepsteaks Limited, Cyprus HE436222. Easygo Group Holdings Pty Ltd in Melbourne names Stake and Kick as its brands. Forbes reports Ed Craven and Bijan Tehrani split the business 50/50; no company register we could read names the shareholders. · 8 minWho owns the crypto casinos? Licence holders and owners for 24 operators, from the registersOf the 24 crypto casinos on the CryptoGuardz register, 23 name an operating company and 12 of those companies appear in the Curacao Gaming Authority's registry of 16 September 2026. None names an individual owner in a public register or in its own documents. Two name a corporate parent; the rest disclose no owner. · 6 minIs Stake legal in India? What the 2025 Act, the state laws and Stake's own terms saySection 5 of India's Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act 2025 prohibits offering online money games, and section 7 bars banks from processing them. Stake's own list of 45 prohibited jurisdictions, read on 4 October 2026, does not name India, and clause 4.5(b) puts the legal risk on the player. · 6 minIs this a safe online casino? Nine checks you can run yourself from the documentsA safe online casino is one whose documents survive nine checks a reader can run alone. On the register's 24 operators, 18 pass the licence lookup, 5 commit to a withdrawal timeframe in their terms, and none has an identified hot wallet. · 6 minSites like Stake: which casinos share its licence, coins and KYC terms, from the recordsEleven operators on the register hold a Curacao licence found in the authority's own register, as Stake does. Five of them share Stake's discretionary KYC trigger, three commit to a withdrawal timeframe that Stake's terms do not, and one licence is recorded as Expired. · 6 minIs Stake.us legal in my state? What the terms, statutes and court filings sayClause 2.1 of the Stake.us terms excludes 22 states, including California, New York, Connecticut and Montana, which have passed sweepstakes bans. Florida, Ohio, Virginia and Minnesota are not excluded, and each has a lawsuit or appeal against the operator on file. · 5 minBC.GAME's Anjouan licence was due to expire on 1 October 2026: what the register shows nowThe Anjouan public register, read on 2 October 2026, shows BC.GAME's licence ALSI-202410011-FI1 valid until 1 October 2027. A month earlier the same register gave 1 October 2026. The register marks all 1,540 licences "valid", including 347 whose expiry date has passed, and BC.GAME's terms say nothing about balances if a licence lapses. · 5 minGamdom's 100% RTP claim: what the marketing, the help centre and the terms each sayGamdom has marketed its in-house games as 100% RTP since 20 November 2025. Its help centre puts the RTP at around 99% with a rebate on top, two Gamdom pages give different caps for that rebate ($5k a day and $50,000), and the binding terms do not mention RTP at all. · 5 minStake banned in Nigeria: what the Lagos regulator actually published and what Stake's terms sayThe Lagos State Lotteries and Gaming Authority's own website lists Medium Rara NV, trading as Stake.com, at number 17 of 44 on its list of illegal gaming companies. The joint notice declaring Stake unlawful in 24 states circulated on LinkedIn and in trade press and was not on the regulator's site on 2 October 2026. Stake's terms list 45 prohibited jurisdictions, and Nigeria is not one. · 6 minWhat an anonymous bitcoin casino means in the terms of fourteen operatorsTwelve of fourteen operators take a first deposit without documents, and all fourteen reserve identity checks at withdrawal or at their discretion. Anonymous at sign-up is not anonymous in the contract. · 5 minCasino KYC requirements: what documents fourteen crypto casinos actually nameTwelve of fourteen operators name at least one document a player must supply. Only two publish a maximum age for proof of address, and two name no ordinary document at all. · 6 minCrypto cards and gambling: what each card's own terms say about casinosTwo of fourteen cards prohibit gambling in a document the issuer publishes, one treats it as a cash advance, and Revolut's block works on merchant codes it admits can be dodged. RedotPay's terms name no gambling rule. · 6 minWhat the terms say about crypto casinos in Canada, and why Ontario is the clause to readOntario's regulated market verifies identity before an account is created, and no operator on this register is part of it. Three of the fourteen name Ontario in their own restricted list, and the consequence for playing from a restricted place is written into the contract. · 5 minCuracao Gaming Authority hack: what the regulator confirmed and what it means for licence checksThe Curacao Gaming Authority confirmed on 17 and 22 September 2026 that its licensing portal was accessed from December 2025 to September 2026 under a false identity. It has not confirmed what was taken. Eight of the fourteen register operators hold its licences. · 6 minSending crypto from an exchange straight to a casino: what the exchange can doOf twelve exchanges on the register, OKX, Bitget and MEXC prohibit gambling transfers outright, OKX and Gate attach a freeze or confiscation power to their gambling clause, Coinbase can claw back a transfer it links to prohibited use, and Binance, Crypto.com and HTX say nothing. Routing through a self-custody wallet moves the balance out of reach of those clauses; it does not change what they say. · 5 minDrake and Adin Ross Stake lawsuit: what the complaint alleged and why it was pausedA Virginia class action accusing Stake.us, Drake and Adin Ross of running an illegal casino and moving money through tips was stayed on 30 July 2026. Stake.us's terms bind players to individual arbitration unless they opted out within 30 days. · 5 minDuelbits hack 2026: what the blockchain shows about the missing $7 millionThe Ethereum address that collected most of the Duelbits hot-wallet theft received about 2,334 ETH on 24 and 25 September 2026 and held 973.5 ETH on 28 September. The operator's promise that user funds are safe was made on X, not in a document a player can enforce. · 5 minWhat fourteen crypto casinos' terms say happens to your balance when verification fails or a VPN is detectedSix of the twelve operators whose terms could be read reserve the deposit as well as the winnings when a restricted-territory or VPN breach is found. One writes that the deposit is returned, one says it may be, and two write balance forfeiture into the verification clause itself. · 5 minGambling Commission affordability checks: what the rules say, and what crypto casinos publish insteadIn Great Britain the financial vulnerability check triggers at 150 GBP of net deposits in a rolling 30 days and reads public insolvency records. Of the 14 offshore crypto operators on the register, 11 publish no deposit or affordability threshold of any kind. · 6 minGambling KYC under five regulators, and which of them licenses the fourteen crypto casinos on the registerThree of five regulators publish a hard rule on when gambling KYC must happen: before play in Great Britain, within 30 days of 2,000 euros in deposits in Malta, before any payout in Kahnawake. Anjouan publishes no timing and Curacao's rule pages could not be retrieved, and those two license all fourteen operators on the register. · 6 minKrypto casino ohne KYC from Germany, what the treaty and the terms sayNo licensed German online casino can let a player deposit, play or withdraw without confirming identity, because section 6a of the Glücksspielstaatsvertrag 2021 forbids it. None of the fourteen crypto casinos on this register is on the GGL whitelist, and eight of them name Germany as a restricted territory in their own terms. · 5 minMetaMask and crypto casinos: what MetaMask's own terms sayMetaMask's terms of use name no gambling rule. They do let MetaMask suspend access on enumerated grounds, disclose that its own stablecoin can be frozen by third parties, and cap liability at fees paid or 25,000 dollars if none were. · 6 minWhat the law says about a no KYC casino in the UK, and what fourteen operators' terms say to a UK playerA site licensed in Great Britain has had to verify name, address and date of birth before a customer can gamble since 7 May 2019, so "no verification" and "UK licensed" cannot both be true. Of the fourteen operators on the register, twelve name the United Kingdom as a restricted territory in their own terms, none holds a Gambling Commission licence, and the two that do not name the UK are licensed in Curacao. · 6 minWhat the operators' own terms say about a no KYC casino for the USAThirteen of fourteen operators on the register exclude the United States in their own binding terms, none names an individual state, and six reserve the right to keep the entire balance of an account found to be playing from there. · 5 minWhat the binding terms say about a no KYC casino, across fourteen operatorsEight of fourteen operators require verification before a withdrawal in their own terms, three publish a figure, and five reserve verification at their discretion with no threshold at all. None meets a plain reading of "no KYC". · 6 minSelf-custody wallet safety: a checklist before you send anythingSeven checks drawn from MetaMask's and Phantom's own help centres, read on 28 September 2026. Both say their support will never ask for a recovery phrase, neither can undo a confirmed transfer, and Phantom supports neither Tron nor BNB Chain, two common USDT networks. · 5 minStake blocked in Ireland: what the regulator and the terms say about player balancesStake stopped serving Irish players in mid-September 2026 after contact from the Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland, which says it wants Irish players' deposits refunded. The regulator's own notice says casino licence applications open in 2027 and 2028. · 5 minStake.us lawsuits: what three court filings say about players' lossesTwo of three US lawsuits against Stake.us are brought by public officials and seek recovery of residents' gambling losses. The third, a private class action, was stayed in July 2026 because of the arbitration clause in Stake.us's terms. · 6 minWhere crypto casino deposits come from, and what exchange and DEX terms say about gamblingThree of twelve exchanges prohibit gambling transfers with no licensing exception, five restrict only unlawful gambling, and three are silent. None of fifteen DEX, aggregator or in-wallet swap terms mentions gambling at all. · 4 minWhat an instant withdrawal casino is bound to by its own termsSix of fourteen operators commit to no processing time anywhere in their contract. Three publish one only in a blog or help page, where it binds nobody. · 5 minIs Stake legit? What its own licence record saysThe licence is real, findable, and carries a term that ended three months before we looked. Two official Curacao artefacts disagree about it.
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