About 30 posts in a subreddit about gambling addiction mention crypto in the month of January

Reddit post titled "Crypto casinos have destroyed me": "I’ve struggled with gambling problems for most of my 20s , lost countless pay cheques, got in all kinds of debt, lies etc

I’m in the UK and something called Gamstop was introduced a few years ago which was great, all you had to do was sign up and you would instantly be banned from making an account with any UK governed gambling company. It helped for a long time

THEN I found crypto casinos where there is just no real way of self excluding because of how anonymous it is, and I’m back to square one today after losing all my saving 5k in the space of a few hours

Devastated"Reddit post about crypto casinos (attribution)
Crypto trading and crypto casinos have presented a new challenge to those battling gambling addiction. There are options for problem gamblers who are struggling to stop gambling in the traditional format: many states and countries require traditional casinos to allow individuals to "self-exclude" — that is, ban themselves from gambling at an establishment. Online gambling is more challenging, but there is software like Gamban and GAMSTOP that attempts to restrict access. However, posters in r/problemgambling have discussed the relative ease of finding online and crypto casinos not restricted by the software — particularly easy with cryptocurrency-based platforms because of the anonymity afforded by crypto.

Regardless of whether they are trying to use blocking software or not, some people in the subreddit appear to be struggling with the challenges presented to them by cryptocurrencies. Some speak about gambling in cryptocurrency casinos, while others have realized that the behaviors that many people involved with cryptocurrencies simply refer to as "investing" are actually manifestations of their gambling addiction. One poster wrote, "Realised yesterday whilst out walking my dog that i'd used crypto as a way to satisfy my gambling urges. I've self excluded from gambling sites for a few years now and managed to taper off. Crypto pulled me back in with trading. I was lying to myself that I was 'investing' so its fine which eventually turned into 24/7 chart watching and leverage trades."