Venezuela approves crypto casino and gambling with the Petro cryptocurrency
Venezuela is moving forward with efforts to stoke cryptocurrency adoption.
The Petro was the world's first national cryptocurrency, built by Venezuela specifically to escape US sanctions. It went through all the usual cryptocurrency motions, including a hyped up ICO and a failure to deliver on its initial promises.
Now it's at the point where the Petro CEO head of Venezuela's cryptocurrency bureau is calming angry speculators on social media, while other official accounts post pictures of users spending Petros just to prove that it really works.
The Petro is truly running through the full ICO experience.
More recently, Venezuelan president Maduro announced that several million barrels of oil would be sold for Petros to fund the coin. And even more recently, Maduro reportedly announced that he has approved legal betting with the Petro, and the creation of a Petro-only casino.
"I have authorised legal bets with Petros," he said. "For example, in the Hotel Humboldt, there will be an international casino and everyone who wants to bet will bet with Petros."
Fitting
Gambling may be a solid outlet for a government hoping to boost adoption of its cryptocurrency. After all, it's regarded as a truly recession-proof industry and Venezuela's economic turmoil is believed to have put gambling on the rise.
It's also fitting given the close association between casinos and money laundering, and the original purpose of the Petro as a vehicle for evading sanctions. However, Maduro specified that proceeds from Casino Petro will be used to fund the country's public health and education sectors.
In this case, gamblers will have to use the Petro (PTR) cryptocurrency, which will likely mean using the government Petroapp. Through it, PTR can be purchased with Bitcoin, Litecoin and Dash.
While Venezuela is taking many official steps to tap the country into crypto, it's thought that organic cryptocurrency adoption is limited, and people's preferences still lie with Bolivars and dollars.
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Disclosure: The author holds BNB, BTC at the time of writing.
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