Venezuela, the very first country on the planet to launch its own national digital currency, has been trying to get Petro, its state-sanctioned digital currency off the ground for quite some time now. The digital currency was primarily conceptualized as a way for the country to escape United Sanctions and it was hoped to be the ultimate solution to the country’s woes in that regard.
However, everything did not go as smoothly as initially expected with the most recent effort to push adoption of Petro being the launch of a crypto-only casino.
Capitalizing on The Gambling Industry
Recently, Nikolas Maduro, the president of Venezuela, announced plans for an upcoming casino at the Hotel Humboldt in the Ávila National Park. This would be a special project for the country and the world of crypto as it would be the first retail casino in the world to operate exclusively using crypto. At the casino, everyone will be required to use Petros (PTS).
The casino’s customers will, therefore, need to exchange their fiat currencies or digital currencies into PTR. According to the president, the funds from the casino will be used to fund education and healthcare in the country.
As expected, this was a rather unexpected move especially considering the fact that it is a total turn around for the country where gambling was completely banned back in 2011. Legal and regulated gambling in Venezuela essentially went extinct after the ban.
Previous Efforts
Venezuela officially launched in February 2018 as an oil-backed digital currency. Unfortunately, the digital currency has not been able to attract much interest since its launch because of the purpose of its creation – that is, circumventing US sanctions. To make the situation even worse, a number of risk rating sites have labeled it as a scam.
In an effort to improve the standings of the digital currency, the president has on a previous occasion announced that millions of barrels of oil would be sold for PTR.
Will It Work?
President Maduro and his government are quite aggressive about getting PTR off the ground. While it can be hard to tell what these efforts will amount to in the long term, it is safe to say that they may just have a chance. The gambling industry is a great way to boost crypto adoption and this can be seen across the industry.
Still, lots of people still prefer Bolivars and dollars for other transactions beyond gambling. That said, it might take a little longer for things to turn out the way that President Maduro is hoping they will. Still, it remains a significant development in the worlds of crypto and gambling.
