Best Crypto Wallets for Online Gamblers [UPDATED]

Crypto is the future of online gambling, and a crypto wallet is your passport to that future. There are some special considerations you should make as a gambler in choosing which wallet to use. Pay attention because this article will give you some great recommendations as to the best crypto wallets for online gamblers in 2022.

Why Get a Wallet?

Even if you only deal with a small amount of crypto, a wallet is necessary. Keeping your crypto in a wallet is much more secure than leaving it on an exchange, and it also allows for more of the anonymity that attracts many gamblers to crypto in the first place. 

In fact, most exchanges will actually close your account if you send crypto directly from the exchange to an online casino, since it is usually against the terms of service. This is because using bitcoin in conjunction with online casinos is a popular tactic for money laundering operations. Avoiding this situation requires you to use your wallet as an in-between point. Luckily, the best bitcoin wallets out there make it incredibly easy to receive money from an exchange and then send it to an online casino.

There are a variety of other reasons to use cryptocurrency for online transactions, and opening a wallet is a good first step.

Crypto Wallet Types

Before you look at the specific wallets that are best-suited for online gamblers, you should get to know some terms that are commonly used to describe bitcoin wallets.

Hot Wallets – Recommended for Gamblers

A “hot wallet” is a crypto wallet that is connected to the internet. To send or receive bitcoin, the user simply has to start up their wallet application and enter the address with which they want to transact. The two main types of hot wallet are:

• Desktop Wallet – Desktop apps that let you view your past transactions and make new ones with complete control. Out of all the wallet types, desktop wallets are the easiest for crypto newbies to navigate. A few especially popular desktop wallets among gamblers are Exodus, Armory, Electrum, and Bitcoin Core.
• Mobile Wallets – These have nice UIs and are even more convenient than desktop wallets since you can take them anywhere on your Android or iOS. They can also use the phone’s camera to scan QR codes for crypto transactions. 

But they also pose a bigger security risk. After all, misplace your phone, and anyone who finds it will have access to all your crypto. The apps usually provide a passphrase to access your wallet from a desktop if your phone is lost, but losing the keys to the castle even for a short time is far from ideal. If you are confident that won’t happen to you, though, check out one of the most popular mobile wallets among gamblers – Coinbase, Argent, or Mycelium.

Hot wallets are an excellent choice for gamblers because they are convenient. Unlike the cold wallets described below, ingoing and outgoing transactions from hot wallets are quick and easy, and they can all be done without getting up from your desk! They are not quite as secure, but unless you are storing many thousands of dollars worth of crypto you do not need to worry about breaches.

Cold Wallets – Not Recommended for Gamblers

A “cold wallet” is a crypto wallet that is not connected to the internet. Cold wallets generally contain encrypted private keys that can be entered into a computer to access the cryptocurrency in the wallet. From the computer, the wallet holder can trade the crypto in the wallet. The two main types of cold wallets are:

• Paper Wallets – A solution where you actually write your private keys down on a slip of paper and enter the keys on the paper when you want to access your money. Most people who make a paper wallet create multiple copies and store them in various secure locations so that their crypto won’t be lost if they misplace one piece of paper. Paper wallets are the oldest type of cryptocurrency wallet.
• Hardware Wallets – A solution where your private keys are stored digitally inside the wallet. You can connect the wallet to a computer, generally via USB, to access your crypto there. Many modern hardware wallets even have a camera built in to scan QR codes. Since most vendors who accept crypto provide a QR code as a shorthand version of their wallet address, the ability to scan them makes paying from a hardware wallet easy. The most popular brands of hardware wallets among gamblers are Ledger and Trezor.

Cold wallets are the most secure form of cryptocurrency storage because they are essentially impossible to hack. Because of this, they are a great choice for people storing large amounts of crypto – say more than two months’ salary. That being said, online gamblers should not keep all their money in cold wallets since they are just not as easily accessible as hot wallets; checking your balance and conducting transactions takes a bit longer.

Non-Custodial Wallets vs Custodial Wallets

If a wallet is “non-custodial”, that means the user has 100% control over the funds. In other words, they are the only ones with access to their keys and the only ones who have the power to access their money. Even on non-custodial hot wallets, the third parties running the wallets do not have access to user keys. As a sort of guarantee that they do not, the wallets offer huge cash rewards to any hacker that finds any code giving the wallet access to user accounts.

A custodial wallet is much like a bank account in that the user can access the money but so can the third party who runs the wallet. That third party can also view and regulate your transactions.

Online gamblers need to make sure they open a non-custodial wallet. Like many exchanges, wallet providers often do not love the idea of their users transferring their holdings to online casinos. If they can see your outgoing transactions and notice you are transferring to a casino balance, they will halt the transaction to uphold AML (anti-money-laundering) laws and warn you that they will close your account if they catch you trying to deal with a casino again. Of course, that won’t happen if they can’t associate the transactions to any specific wallet address like is the case with non-custodial wallets.

Types of Crypto Wallets

What Makes a Good Wallet for an Online Gambler?

Besides a non-custodial wallet, what are some features gamblers should look for when browsing for a wallet?

• Easy to buy small amounts – Unlike most crypto users, gamblers will probably want to frequently top up their balance with small amounts. Because of this, you should look for a wallet with transaction fees that are calculated as a percentage of the money being transferred, not as a flat fee.
• Desktop and mobile – With the rising popularity of mobile casinos, gamblers tend to move around a lot while playing. They should open a secure bitcoin wallet with a good mobile app to support that.
• No KYC – Gamblers like their anonymity, especially when it comes to cryptocurrency transactions to online casinos. Some wallets, even non-custodial wallets in some cases, ask you to go through a KYC (Know Your Customer) process, which means you have to provide personal information like national identification. This ruins the anonymous feeling of crypto ownership. It’s also an especially bad idea for gamblers in a region of the world like the US where online gambling is frowned upon and strictly regulated!
• Quick transaction time – Logging onto your favorite online gambling site all ready for a session and realizing your balance has run dry is one of the worst feelings for a gambler. It’s made even more terrible if you can’t quickly top up your balance to get the ball rolling again. So make sure your wallet allows you to make quick and anonymous transactions.

The Best Wallets for Online Gamblers

Time to take a deeper look at some of the very best online gambling crypto wallets online gamblers can look into. Note that all of these wallets are free, although they have small transaction fees.

Best for Crypto Newbies: Exodus

If you’ve never used crypto before but want to start enjoying some of the great benefits it offers to gamblers, Exodus wallet is a good place to start. Downloading and setting up the wallet is dead simple; just run the installer and launch the program and you’ll be taken directly to your wallet, no registration required; you can immediately start receiving or sending crypto using the most intuitive interface of any wallet on this list.

Exodus supports 45+ different currencies, too. While this may not be a huge deal for people that are only interested in crypto for gambling, it’s great for those who want to dive deeper into the crypto market.

Best for Mid- to High-Level Crypto Users: Blockstream Green Wallet

For gamblers who already know their way around crypto, Blockstream Green is easily the best wallet out there. It of course has the normal send and receive capabilities, but it also does a lot of other cool stuff like Bitcoin Testnet and Liquid wallets. The features may seem daunting to a newbie, but they allow power users to maximize their crypto gambling experience.

This is also a web wallet, which means users can access it from any browser. This is usually an insecure way to host a bitcoin wallet, but Blockstream addresses that by including some advanced security features like 2FA, multisig, and hard wallet integration.

Blockstream Green Wallet also has a mobile app for Android and iOS, complete with a “view only” mode that would prevent an intruder from using your funds if they were to get access to your phone without your private keys.

Best for Mobile: BRD

BRD is a very basic wallet. It lets you send and receive easily, and that’s about it. But when a user is on the go and trying to use their bitcoin wallet at the same time, that’s usually a good thing.

The feature that really sets BRD apart is that it’s offline most of the time, making it more secure. It only establishes a connection to the BTC network when you need to send or receive. The rest of the time, it’s just as impenetrable to cyber hackers as a cold wallet is.

Honorable mention in this category goes to Mycelium, which has a ton of cool features and a user-friendly UI. It’s certainly the best mobile wallet for Android, but it’s not available for iOS.

Most Secure Hot Wallet: blockchain.info

Blockchain.info is one of the most popular wallets out there and used to face a lot of threats from cyberhackers, but with an extra-secure form of encryption known as AES, it has managed to increase the level of security it provides to users. As if that wasn’t enough, it backs up each user’s wallet on its servers and encrypts the wallet a second time. If you are a gambler but are a bit nervous about using a hot wallet, rest assured that hacking attempts on blockchain.info wallets are next to impossible.

The wallet also has an easy-to-use mobile app for Android and iOS.

Best Hardware Wallet: Trezor One

Using a hardware wallet will take your security to the next level, and Trezor One is great for beginners and power users alike. It doesn’t have all the high-tech bells and whistles of more expensive models like a fingerprint reader or a high-resolution readout, but it’s just as secure and it comes at more than a reasonable price.

Best Wallet for Sports Betting: Crypto.com DeFi Wallet

The Crypto.com DeFi Wallet is the perfect tool for online sports betting. Unlike Crypto.com’s hosted wallet, the DeFi version is a separate application that is completely non-custodial and decentralized. It is the best since the website itself sponsors and works with numerous teams from different sports organizations.

These include teams in the NBA, NHL, Formula 1, UFC, MLB, and many other prestigious sports organizations. They also work closely with A-list athletes such as Lebron James. 

Hence, you can be assured that sports betting is accounted for and integrated into the wallet’s features. Furthermore, you can bet with over 664 currencies through multiple networks. The security is top-notch and you can even create multiple digital wallets or import your old existing ones.

WARNING: Don’t Use Coinbase Crypto Wallet for Gambling

Coinbase is another of the most popular bitcoin wallets, but it is a BAD CHOICE for online gamblers. This is because multiple sources have reported Coinbase shutting down their accounts after a transaction to a casino was detected.

Crypto is the perfect type of currency for gambling, and finding a good wallet for dealing with casinos is important for every online gambler.