Bitcoin Dice
Dice games have been a gambling staple for 100’s of years. The latest evolution of these games comes in the form of Bitcoin ‘Dice’ games. These include proof of fairness and the ability to select your own probability for each round of the game – instead of having to choose from a limited set of bets.
This article gives you an overview of the different Bitcoin Dice games you can find online. First of all below you’ll find an overview of the places you can play these games. Next are some of the common betting strategies, along with their pros and cons. After that I have outlined factors to keep in mind depositing and withdrawing, especially for the single game Dice sites.
The Different Types of Bitcoin Dice Games
SatoshiBet were one of the very first Bitcoin casinos. This is a minimal operation with only 9 games, which are so simple that they have a certain retro-charm. The dice game you’ll find here is a simple game, even by Bitcoin Dice standards. You select a number between 0 and 100, and bet on whether the result will be higher or lower. You can adjust the chance (percentage), pay-out and bet amounts to suit. For example, you could choose 11% chance, giving you a 9x pay-out, then choose ‘High’ and try and hit 89 or above. The return to player percentage is 99% and this game has the information available to make it provably fair.
SatoshiDice was the original Bitcoin Dice game, and claims to have had more than 6 million rolls already. They cover 11 languages, and make fairness a central part of their product (via the ‘verification’ tab). The house edge of this game is a little higher than the others at 1.9%.
999Dice has the lowest house edge of any BTC Dice site, with just 0.1% taken from each bet. There are some complaints about withdrawals here – and suspicions that the ‘too good to be true’ edge is a scam. Nothing has been proven, though caution should be advised.
You’ll find plenty of other Bitcoin games which use dice, including Craps, Sic Bo and a live dealer dice based game of chance.
Bitcoin Dice Betting Strategies
Low house edge games and provable fairness give players in these games the opportunity to try out a range of betting strategies. They are very popular with those trying variations of the Martingale system, and more complex variations of this. The house edge will always prevail in the long run, this is a mathematical certainty. What systems can do is smooth out variance or give you some short-term winning streaks.
Here are some of the main betting systems used:
Martingale Betting: This is the infamous ‘stake doubling’ strategy which has been used by Roulette players for many decades. You bet a single unit on a 50% / 50%, and continue to bet that unit if you win. If you lose a bet, then you double the stake on the next roll. If you lose again, then you double up once more. When you finally do get a win, this doubling makes sure that you win that initial 1 unit, and can continue betting that stake again.
The problem with Martingale betting is that a streak comes along eventually that wipes out your bankroll. For example, if you start with just 1 mBTC, and hit have a run of losses, by the 11th wager you’ll need a whole Bitcoin (then 2 for the 12th) just to get your 1 mBTC back. Many players get cold-feet at this point.
What Martingale betting on Bitcoin Dice will do for you is even out most of the short term swings. I look at this as trading lots of small wins now, for one huge loss at some point in the future.
Paroli Betting: This is the reverse of Martingale betting, you bet bigger after you win. The idea is to double 3 times, so you’ll bet 1,2,4,1. This trades smaller wins for the occasional bigger one. The house edge will still be in place – over time you cannot escape this from a mathematical perspective. Paroli can make the games more entertaining, by giving you short term boosts when the rolls line up for you.
Most other betting strategies are variations of either negative or positive progressions. Layers of complexity make systems like the Fibonacci system more involved, though the underlying concept is based on the Martingale system. As long as you understand that the goal is to win short-term, and enjoy the boosts to your BTC balance when you do win, these can be entertaining to experiment with.
Depositing and Withdrawing
Many of the single-game Dice sites do not involve a registration step. This means that it is important to deposit with a wallet you control and not via an exchange or other agreement. The fall-back from losing your connection is that your balance is returned to the wallet used to deposit with. Some sites specify that they can only return to the depositing wallet.
Both depositing and withdrawing from Bitcoin Dice sites is a very simple process – just make sure you are aware of the rules before you start.
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