Who holds the money at a decentralized casino: wallet, escrow or account
Check 1 of 5 · custody
Custody is the first question and the most important one. There are three answers on the market today: your own wallet, an on-chain escrow tied to an account, and an ordinary account balance. Here is which platform uses which, and what each one means when something goes wrong.
Every other check on this site matters less than this one. If your money sits in your own wallet, a platform that disappears takes your open bets with it, not your balance. If it sits in an account, your balance is exactly as safe as the operator's wallets, its keys and its willingness to pay. The word “decentralized” on a casino's homepage tells you nothing about which of those you have. The sign-up screen tells you almost everything.
Three kinds of custody
Your own wallet. You connect MetaMask, Rabby, Phantom or a similar wallet, or a smart account you control. Nothing is deposited anywhere. When you bet, the stake moves from your wallet into a contract; when you win, the contract pays your wallet. Between bets, the platform holds nothing of yours.
On-chain escrow behind an account. You sign up with an email or a social login. Your balance is held in a contract on-chain, so it is visible and follows the contract's rules, but you reach it through an account the platform manages.
An account balance. You send crypto to a deposit address the casino gives you. From that moment it is in the operator's wallets, and your balance is a number in the operator's system until you withdraw.
Who uses which
| Platform | How you sign in | Where the money sits between bets |
|---|---|---|
| Bookmaker.xyz (Azuro) | Wallet | Your wallet |
| Overtime | EVM wallet, or Overtime Account with social login | Your wallet or your smart account |
| SX Bet | MetaMask, Rabby, or Magic email wallet | Your proxy wallet contract |
| Gamba | Solana wallet | Your wallet |
| JustBet (WINR) | Email or social login | On-chain escrow on Arbitrum |
| Dexsport | Web3 wallet, or email/Telegram | Your wallet, or an internal wallet held by Dexsport |
| Stake, BC.Game, Shuffle | Email account | Operator's wallets |
Overtime and SX Bet show that easy sign-up doesn't have to mean giving up custody. Overtime's social login creates a smart account; SX Bet's email option creates a Magic wallet and a proxy contract. Both are yours. Dexsport shows the other way it can go: the same site offers wallet connect and an internal wallet, and which one you get depends on how you signed up.
What each kind protects you from
Custody decides which failures reach your money.
- The operator's hot wallet is hacked. Self-custody: not your problem. Escrow: depends on the escrow contract. Account: the operator's problem first, and yours if it can't cover it. On or about 4 September 2023 about $41M was taken from Stake's hot wallets; the FBI attributed it to Lazarus Group.
- The platform shuts down. Self-custody: your wallet balance is untouched; open bets depend on the contract. Account: you depend on the operator paying out before it goes. BetSwirl's app went offline in 2026 with its contracts still on-chain, and anyone holding funds in their own wallet simply stopped betting there. More on what went wrong.
- The operator asks for documents. Self-custody: there is no withdrawal to hold. Account: the terms usually allow it before any payout.
What self-custody doesn't protect you from
It moves the risk; it doesn't remove it. Three risks become yours alone.
Signing. Every bet is a transaction you approve. A fake site with a copied interface can ask you to approve a contract that drains your tokens. The defence is to check the contract address against the one the platform publishes, which is one of our five checks for exactly this reason.
Approvals. To bet USDC, you give a contract permission to spend it. An unlimited approval stays open after you leave. Approve what you plan to bet and revoke the rest; how, step by step, is in safe play on-chain.
Keys. Lose the seed phrase and nobody can restore the wallet. There is no support chat for that.
Open bets are a kind of custody too
Between placing a bet and its settlement, your stake is held by a contract, even on the most decentralized platform. On SX Bet it sits in the escrow contract for that match until it is graded. On Overtime a sportsbook win has to be claimed, and winnings not claimed within 90 days of the market being resolved are forfeit. On Gamba the program settles the bet against the pool once the RNG provider's seed for it is in. The shorter that window and the clearer the contract, the less trust you need. That is the subject of on-chain settlement.
How custody shows up in our score
Custody is one of five checks in how we score. Your own wallet or smart account earns the full point. An escrow tied to an account, or a platform where custody depends on how you signed up, earns half. An account balance earns nothing. On the ranking of decentralized casinos that is what separates JustBet and Dexsport, at 2.5, from the platforms above them.
A quick custody test
Before you use any platform, answer one question from its own documents: if the platform vanished tomorrow, where would my money be? If the answer is “in my wallet”, you have self-custody. If it is “in a contract I can withdraw from myself”, you have something close. If the answer is “on the platform”, you have an account, whatever the homepage says.