LOGiCO president says crypto betting needs traceable payments and regulation
Regulation2 min read
Moreno Marasco, president of Italian online gambling concessionaires’ association LOGiCO, discussed cryptocurrency payments at SiGMA World 2026. He said closer integration with gambling could be possible if transactions were traceable, and described a recent ADM measure as potentially allowing greater scope for it.
Moreno Marasco, who heads LOGiCO, the association of online gambling concessionaires, used his SiGMA World 2026 panel appearance to examine how traceable cryptocurrency payments are, and whether crypto and gambling can be more closely integrated in light of a recent ADM measure. He spoke on the panel “Crypto Asset, piattaforme di prediction: una scommessa dentro la scommessa?”, opening with a comparison between land-based and remote gambling.
In land-based gambling, cash allows fully anonymous transactions that are neither traced nor traceable afterwards, within anti-money-laundering thresholds or barring operators' own reports, which they may be reluctant to file; online, by contrast, everything is traced. Cryptocurrencies are pseudonymous rather than anonymous, he said, and investing in them is a financial investment comparable to Forex, not a bet.
Betting with crypto is already possible by converting it into a currency such as the euro, Marasco said; the open question is whether a closer integration between cryptocurrencies and gambling is feasible. The recent ADM measure could open some room in that direction, he said, seeing more openings than closures, with the outcome depending on how traceable the transaction ultimately proves to be.
Card payments today involve no direct use of cryptocurrency, he said, because the intermediary takes on traceability and identification, keeping everything fully compliant with the rules. Direct conversion, with deposits and withdrawals in cryptocurrency, would be a different case: it could be done if the required mechanisms were respected, he said. The e-wallet is not currently traced, though it is not fully anonymous, and should be subject to the same level of traceability as the payment systems used in gambling, at which point anonymity would cease, he said.
He also said the profiles of the client base should be considered, because some needs are tied to fears, citing people who do not use a phone on a motorway, perhaps out of fear of being intercepted or simply from lack of knowledge.