Switch Poker made headlines earlier this week by announcing that it will accept virtual currency Bitcoin as a deposit and payment method. By doing so Switch Poker has become the world’s first real money poker site to offer the use of virtual currency like Bitcoin.

The Costa Rican-based operator Switch Poker will accept the virtual currency in the cashier along with the mainstay e-wallets Neteller and Skrill (MoneyBookers). According to Conor McCarthy, spokesman for Switch Poker, “The advantage of the Bitcoin currency is that it has the ability to remove all payment processing related barriers of entry.” He further added that “It would allow any person to play for real money completely anonymously. Players will be able to now send us funds directly without a 3rd party being privy to the transactions, and we will be able to send funds directly back to the user.”

About Bitcoin-

Created by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2009, Bitcoin is a virtual currency that is not backed by any government or any other organization. Bitcoins transactions are made on a peer-to-peer (P2P) network without any involvement of a bank. In fact, all transactions and account balances are logged on the network; there is no central server or anything like that where all of the Bitcoins are counted. Customers purchasing Bitcoins for real money can do so at Bitcoins Exchanges and once in an online wallet, can be transferred to and from merchants such as Switch Poker. Users can also cash them out to dollars at the exchanges – similar to a real foreign currency exchange service.

About Switch Poker-

Switch Poker was launched in 2010 and is the first real money poker site for iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch mobile devices. Switch Poker uses a simple HTML5 based website that supports multiple mobile browsers. Currently Switchpoker.com does not accept US players.

Switch Poker and Bitcoin - Final words

Switch Poker believes that their new policy for accepting Bitcoin as a currency will help them to become the top mobile poker sites in the market. However the legality of the virtual currency is controversial as it has already been questioned in many jurisdictions. Early this year, the electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has ruled out Bitcoin for donation purpose because the various legal concerns associated with it. In fact there is fear that Bitcoin can be easily linked with illegal activities such as money laundering and illicit drug supplies.

Now it will be depend on time whether the new cashier addition by Switch Poker will able to attract Bitcoin user to try online poker?