Multi-Currency Online Casinos
Date Added: March 26, 2009
Initially online gambling was concentrated in the United States and therefore the currency used was USD. Then online casinos began to take on players from other countries, but persisted with USD as the currency of the casino. At one time they began to perform the banking function of accepting and disbursing funds in the players’ desired currencies but wagering was done in USD. Today online gambling has become a universal phenomenon. Players in all countries are engaging in it. It is natural for these players to want to wager in their own currency. Not only is that more comfortable but it also saves currency exchange costs. Therefore many online casinos, particularly those powered by Microgaming, Cryptologic and Playtech, now accept multiple currencies. Such online casinos are known as multi currency online casinos.
The common currencies accepted by multi currency online casinos are USD, CAD, EUR and GBP. Depending on the concentration of clients currencies of other countries like Russia, South Africa, China and others are also accepted at some online casinos. Microgaming and Playtech online casinos ask players to select the currency of their choice from those offered at the time of registering. They can then make deposits in the chosen currency, wager in that currency and make withdrawals in that currency. However they cannot change the currency once they make their choice.
If at all the player needs to change the currency he will have to make that request to customer support. Usually the customer support will ask him to complete the wagering requirements and clear all his bonuses. Only then will customer support make the required change in the currency. The reason for this is that many online casinos offer bonus schemes in which the bonuses are not convertible from one currency to the other. Hence if there are pending bonuses then it is not possible to make the switch.
There are two systems that are generally prevalent for the computing of bonuses in multi currency online casinos. The simpler system is to keep the numerical amount of the bonus the same in all currencies. In this system a particular bonus would be $100 for players wagering in USD. It would be £100 for players wagering in GBP. And it would be €100 for players wagering in EUR. Other multi currency online casinos try and equate the value of the bonus based on the exchange rate. There if in USD the bonus is $100, then in EUR it would be €75 and in GBP it would be £70. In this system therefore the numerical value of the bonus would be lower in the higher value currency.
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