BitVegas
| Industry | Gambling |
| Founded | February 12, 2013 |
| Defunct | March 7, 2014 |
| Founder(s) | Murderscene |
| Website | https://bitvegas.net/ |
- Not to be confused with BitVegas.eu.
BitVegas was a casino based in Minecraft. It was among the first services to integrate Bitcoin in Minecraft.[1]
It featured the most generous faucet of its time, yielding 0.002 BTC per hour to visitors.
Layout
BitVegas took place in a six story building. Across the six levels were a collection of games:
| Game | Floors | Bitcoin? | Game | Floors | Bitcoin? | Game | Floors | Bitcoin? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lottery | 1, 4 | Always | Hold'em | 3 | No | Minefield | 2, 5 | Yes |
| Drinking | 1-5 | Always | Roulette | 2, 5 | Yes | Race betting | 4 | Yes |
| Slots | 2-5 | Yes | Blackjack | 3, 5 | Yes | Parkour | 6 | No |
Floors
The building's six accessible levels were connected by elevators. The first floor served as the lobby, featuring a bar. Also connected to the first floor were two closed wings, a gift shop and a hotel. Neither of these wings would ever open, although it was possible to see their contents by freecamming. The second floor had two massive roulette tables and a slur of other games. The third floor had almost exclusively featured card games, and the fourth floor was centered on the Bacon Races. The fifth floor, called the "green room", was reserved to users who had 1 BTC in their accounts, and had games with higher maximum bets. The top floor was technically the roof, and had several parkour courses. No bets could be placed on the top floor.
Mechanics
Bacon Races
Floor 4 featured Bacon Races, which was a comical take on horse racing. Four pigs were given odds out of 100% to win the next race, and players could stake bitcoins on those odds.
Drinking game
Players could purchase alcoholic drinks from bars across the casino. Upon drinking a beverage, there was a 48% chance of the drinker finding double what they spent on the drink. Upon winning, a message would appear saying that the player had 'found a coin' in their drink.
Gift chest
Upon first joining the server, the number of free gifts a player may receive was set to thirty. Once every fifteen minutes, a player could go to a "Gift Chest" to receive a free gift of .5 mBTC. Players may increase their number of free gifts by referring other players. Referrals also paid 5 mBTC up front. This very generous referral bonus sparked edit wars on the Bitcoin Wiki.
Incidents
September 6, 2013 hack
On September 6, 2013, a user logged into BitVegas and exploited a vulnerability in CraftBukkit to log into the server as other players and withdraw their funds. About 7 bitcoins were stolen, worth about $1,000 at the time. The lost money was reimbursed by BitVegas.[2][3]
Shutdown
Murderscene, the founder of BitVegas, had been becoming gradually less active since July 2013[4] and eventually fell out of contact completely. After he stopped refilling the hot wallet, BitVegas had essentially ran out of money by 2014.[5] On January 20, all the games were shut down. The service remained online, and users could still deposit or withdraw, but placing bets was impossible.[6] When it became apparent that Murderscene wasn't coming back, the server was shut down on March 7. As the server had no bitcoins left, many users were left without any of their remaining deposits.[5]
In September 2014, Murderscene was allegedly doxxed.[7] Outstanding deposits have not been repaid to date.
Attempts at replication
After BitVegas shut down, there have been multiple publicized attempts to recreate the server.[8][9] However, no such attempt has ever been able to launch,[10] despite the public domain release of the BitVegas graphical assets.[8]
References
- ↑ BitcoinTalk thread 143554. (Video inside) BitVegas. Bitcoin casino build 100% in Minecraft! Project reveal. February 12, 2013.
- ↑ BitcoinTalk thread 289399. ** BITVEGAS HACKED ** September 6, 2013.
- ↑ /r/Bitcoin thread 1lx1y4. Minecraft Casino BitVegas Hacked. (And Poker alpha released) September 7, 2013. Self post.
- ↑ BitcoinTalk thread 265669. BitVegas admin MIA July 31, 2013.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 /r/BitVegas thread 1zryen. (ANNOUNCEMENT) Temporarily shutting off the server March 7, 2014. Self post.
- ↑ /r/BitVegas thread 1vocak. (ANNOUNCEMENT) Temporarily shutting off the games January 20, 2014. Self post.
- ↑ BitcoinTalk thread 796673. (FULL DOX) (SCAMMER) Guy Kilgour / BitVegas / BitAds / Murderscene September 25, 2014.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 BitcoinTalk thread 573278. (InDev) (ANN) The revival of BitVegas - BTCVegas (BitVegas v2) April 16, 2014.
- ↑ BitcoinTalk thread 1021184. (In development) MTCASINO - BITVEGAS REBORN! April 11, 2015.
- ↑ BitcoinTalk thread 1161599. AnyChance Of A New Bitvegas Minecraft Casino? August 25, 2015.