Old Town in Estonia’s capital of Tallinn will soon see a high roller private casino club open in the space of the former Du Nord restaurant in the St. Petersbourg Hotel, a venue shuttered through loss of business during the world health crisis.
Eesti Ekspress (Estonia Express), an investigative local weekly reported the development, but the Bitcoin entrepreneur, Tim Heath’s plans have not been a closely guarded secret.
Heath is the entrepreneur behind Yolo Group and founder of Bitcasino.io and Sportsbet.io – two online gambling sites with phenomenal reach, especially in the Asian markets. Most of the clientele is expected to be from east Asia.
But this is anything but a fly-by-night junket operation looking to poach high rolling whales and separate them from their money and existing hosts – it’s a well-envisioned extension of the many things Heath has done in his own ecosystem of Bitcoin and new-age business development.
Potential for Multichannel Operation
According to a 2020 report on SBC, Heath companies built their own live dealer studios for online players in a few short weeks in response to the Covid situation. He added: “…and we’re building a land-based casino in the old town of Tallinn, where we’re going to mix online and offline.”
Bitcasino and other Heath operations already have an extensive network of high rollers at online casinos. One reason is that there are basically no limits to the amount a person can deposit, bet, or cash out. LCB.org notes a $50,000 per transaction limit for withdrawals, but there’s no reason to imagine this limit applies to all players, especially one who, as he stated in the SBC article: “…deposit(s) half a million and play, and his bets might be €20,000 a hand at baccarat. So that’s 25 bets. It’s like putting in €100 at blackjack and playing $5 hands, it doesn’t feel like much but for some of these guys this is normal. You can’t do that in a traditional banking network, it’s just not going to happen.”
So, according to the article, the strategy for what might have the working name “Bombay Club” after his high roller lounges online is to fly the VIPs in and host their play at the land-based club using their crypto wallets from Bitcasino. When the player returns home, to Tokyo, or elsewhere, they can open the site and play with the same live dealers they just spent the weekend with.
It’s unclear if that is the current plan but it’s entirely possible since he has stated as much in the past.
While cryptocurrency gambling presents a light learning curve for western players thinking about adopting it, but for residents in places like Paraguay, Brazil, and Argentina cross-border trading in cryptocurrencies has become second nature. El Salvadore recently became the first country to make Bitcoin legal tender. However, Bitcasino and Sportbet.io find the bulk of value to players in countries such as Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Indonesia, and India.
The average payout time at Bitcasino.io is just over 2 minutes and the operator’s Terms and Conditions do not mention a maximum withdrawal amount.
Ever-expanding Operations
Yolo Group has offices in the Kalamaja district of Tallinn as well as in Ukraine, Brazil, Australia, Malta, and the Philippines. The group was formerly known as Coingaming Group but rebranded in September 2021. Over 600 people comprising 49 nationalities are employed by Yolo within the five main verticals:
Yolo Investments focuses on investment opportunities across gaming and fintech.
Yolo Entertainment incorporates all Coingaming Group B2C brands including Bitcasino and Sportsbet.io.
Yolo Finance is the home of blockchain, fintech, and banking rails-related activities.
Yolo Ventures covers strategic partnership projects on a B2B scale.
Yolo Tech delivers IT and back-office services within the ecosystem.
The private member’s casino will be located in the St. Petersbourg Hotel at Rataskaevu 7.
Source: Yolo Group founder opening high-end casino in Tallinn Old Town, ERR News, January 7, 2022