YABTCL Review

We know this sounds shallow but we want to say that we like this bitcoin gambling site’s name, the longer name in particular. YABTCL stands for Yet Another BitCoin Lottery. Although the acronym is not that spot on, we like the name for being somewhat trendy. To some degree, it has an appeal to it. But of course, just like in the other reviews we do, we will be restraining our biases as we do this YABTCL review. We will be carefully scrutinizing this bitcoin gambling site to find out if it’s really worth signing up with it.

For starters, we have to say that YABTCL’s website is bordering on being boring and deficient, at least based on our first impression. We understand that there’s nothing much you can show in the website of a bitcoin lottery but we can’t sense the effort here. The design looks dated. The font and layout used make the site look old to appeal to new players who have probably been accustomed to better looking websites. Worse, there’s sparseness in the information presented. You might think that the “You had one job…” meme would be appropriate for this site. But then, upon a more thorough assessment, you may realize that all the simplicity and aversion to sophistication might actually be good, as the site could be particularly intended for an audience who are already well-acquainted with lottery sites. We honestly did not have a good impression of this gambling site because of the seeming lack of information and navigation links on the homepage. It was not easy finding the important pages that reveal the more interesting features of this site.

Nevertheless, except for the boo-boo of not properly presenting information about the site on the homepage, the simplicity can be something that works to YABTCL’s advantage. This gambling site is all about bitcoin lottery and it functionally delivers what is expected of it (once you know what it’s all about). It offers a simple but rewarding gameplay. The system is even probably fair.  YABTCL proclaims itself as the most complete provably fair lottery system available so far.

Other highlights that should entice online gamblers to consider spending some time on YABTCL are the site’s Instant Lottery, translation system, free lottery, affiliate programs, and the ability to play without having to register for an account. All of these will be discussed in greater detail below so read along.

Registration Requires a Bitcoin Wallet Address

YABTCL requires players to sign up for an account but not in the traditional fashion. There’s no need to set up a username but a bitcoin wallet address is essential. To play, you only have to have a bitcoin wallet address and indicate a password. YABTCL prefers bitcoin wallets that support the signing of messages because signatures are being used as a security measure for resetting password, spending more than 5 BTC in buying tickets or quotas between two draws, and in adding other main addresses. The suggested wallets are Bitcoin Core and Blockchain.info.

You can also register for an account in the typical manner. Just add something for the optional Login field. You will still need to add your bitcoin address, though.

Once you click the Register button, you will be shown a dialog box that shows an explanation on why you must choose a wallet that supports the signing of messages. You then have to complete the registration by clicking on the Finish button.

YABTCL Account Dashboard

We can clearly state in this YABTCL review that this bitcoin gambling site indeed supports full anonymous gambling. The account dashboard does not include anything that would reveal a player’s identity. Withdrawals also don’t require any form of confirmation like what some online casinos do.

The account dashboard does not include tabs or specific sections for account or profile management, deposits, withdrawals, and bonuses. Most of the functions are conducted through in-site pop-ups.

Transactions are not processed through the dashboard. Deposits, for example, are to be undertaken by making wallet to wallet transactions. The YABTCL dashboard only provides instructions on how the deposit is to be made and presents the bitcoin wallet address to which you have to send your deposit.

YABTCL’s Lottery Games: The Basics

Here’s a summary of what to expect in the games on YABTCL:

Game overview:

• Draws are held thrice a week: on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays at a specific time (24:00 UTC).
• For each draw, 6 out of 67 will be drawn (6/67 lotto)
• Tickets are available at different prices starting at 0.001 BTC
• Tickets can have from 6 to 16 numbers. The more numbers the ticket has, the higher the price.
• Winning tickets are those that hit 2 to 6 numbers.

Setting the Pools:

• The players are responsible for creating the game pools.
• There are two types of pools. These are share-a-ticket and add-a-ticket. In share-a-ticket pools, the buyers of the tickets determine how many quotas with which the total value of the tickets is to be divided. For add-a-ticket pools, YABTCL determines the number of tickets that can be added to the pool and how many numbers every ticket can have.

Ensuring the Fairness of the Draws:

• To make sure that the draws are fair, 1.5 hours before the designated draw time, a file will be generated. This file will contain all of the tickets that will be included in the draw. A SHA256 file hash will be generated and timestamped with a bitcoin transaction.
• During the actual draw, the current bitcoin block number will be checked and the next block will be utilized to produce the winning numbers.
• The winning numbers are hence generated using the following seeds: the block hash (in lower case), the block height, the server secret, and the SHA256 hash (in upper case) of the file containing the included tickets.
• Six block confirmations are required before the winning numbers are published online.

YABTCL’s Gaming Platform and Variable House Edge

The gaming platform used is proprietary YABTCL technology. This gaming platform comes with a variable house edge.

YABTCL’s house edge is rather complicated and highly detailed. It would be better to just refer to the site for the specifics. The gist is that the house edge starts at 1% but it can be lowered down to 0% through a number of ways. It can be by playing at the instant lottery (with which the house edge can be decreased to as low as 0.1%), by losing at the instant lottery (house edge reduction can be up to 0%), or by achieving one of the top 100 scores in YABTCL’s score system.

This is the variable house edge information page, where you can find the comprehensive detailing of YABTCL’s variable house edge. The links provided on the site are incorrect. We had to do some digging to find this link.

Non-Mobile-Friendly Website

It’s disappointing to learn that YABTCL does not have a mobile-friendly website. It does not have a mobile app for either Android or iOS devices so the team behind it could have at least thought of making the website compatible with mobile gaming. The lottery games of YABTCL don’t require advanced programming or integration of impressive graphics. It’s a letdown that the website doesn’t have a responsive design. Actually, if you try loading YABTCL on a big-screened smartphone or  tablet, it may look good enough that you’d think that you can just play the games and enjoy. You might be able to tolerate the hassles of zooming in and out then panning to the section you want to access. However, for this YABTCL review and in our other bitcoin casino reviews, we only consider a website mobile-friendly if the the website supports a swipe and tap style of navigation, and if the links are not too close together that they easily cause wrong clicks or taps.

YABTCL Currency

The currency used on YABTCL is only bitcoins (BTC).

Making deposits on YABTCL is different from how it is usually done in other online bitcoin casinos. Every time a deposit is to be made, YABTCL provides a temporary deposit address that expires after 24 hours. Once a deposit is made to this temporary wallet address, it will be shown as an “Unconfirmed Balance.” This unconfirmed balance can still be used to buy tickets and pool quotas but the transactions will be labeled as unconfirmed and will only be confirmed once two confirmations are made. There are no minimum and maximum amounts indicated for the deposits.

When it comes to withdrawals, there is a minimum amount set at 0.0000543 BTC. It is possible to withdraw bitcoins into a wallet that has not been registered to a player’s account but this is where the message signing feature of your bitcoin wallet is needed. As mentioned, you need the message signing feature to add the new wallet address to your main wallet address.

Free Bitcoins Offered

YABTCL has a bitcoin faucet that offers free satoshis for all players who have lower than 2000 satoshis in their balance. For the uninitiated, 1 satoshi is equivalent to 0.00000001. Hence, 2000 satoshis is equal to 0.00002 BTC or 0.02 mBTC. The faucet provides up to 2000 satoshis in every 10 minutes.

To claim your free bitcoins or satoshis, you just have to enter the words in the SOLVEmedia box as shown below.

There are important things you need to remember as you use the bitcoin faucet, though. One is that the house edge for the instant lottery is raised to 1% when you use the faucet even just once. Also, using tapping on the faucet increases the minimum investment and withdrawal values to 0.01 BTC. Additionally, the availment of the free satoshis will prevent you from creating or buying quotas in pools. The maximum rounds in an automatic game or in an instant lottery will also be decreased to 40.

Question: So how do things return to normal?

Answer: The normal house edge, minimum investment and withdrawal values, ability to create or buy quotas in pools, and maximum advanceable rounds will be restored to their normal levels or states once you have used up the satoshis you obtained from the faucet. Using these satoshis does not include their withdrawal.

Bonuses and Promotions

Except for the bitcoin faucet / free bitcoin system, YABTCL does not offer the bonuses usually offered by other online casinos.

There is, however, reward system for those who help in the website’s language translation. It’s just a letdown that the reward amounts and terms are not clearly stated. It’s also not clear when the rewards will be given.

There is also an affiliate program or referral system that pays a percentage of the house edge depending based on player level. Learn more about this on the website itself. Click here for the specific page where you can find the information. The links shown on the website are erratic. They don’t point to the right pages where the information are found. It took us some time to find these details.

YABTCL’s Very Limited Customer Support

Perhaps the biggest drawback for YABTCL is its look of customer support channels. It can only be reached via email at [email protected]. The email address is actually the link of the Contact Us section on its homepage. Players may also reach YABTCL through Twitter or Facebook but it would have been better if there’s a telephone number provided or a live chat support.

United States Players Accepted

YABTCL is open to US players. This is not explicitly stated on the YABTCL website but based on the information provided by other reviews and references online, this gambling site accepts players from all parts of the world. We are not keen on contesting their assumption in this YABTCL review. We gather that the anonymous nature of bitcoin transactions being undertaken on YABTCL makes it possible for anyone to gamble with bitcoins on the site without having to worry about legal impediments.

YABTCL Has a Language Translation Program

YABTCL, at present, can be viewed in 6 different languages: English, Japanese, Spanish, Russian, German, and Thai. However, this number of languages may soon expand to more than a few dozens as YABTCL has an ongoing program that enlists the help of players to translate the site to various local languages including Italian, Turkish, Danish, Polish, and Portuguese.

Get Acquainted with YABTCL through the Following Links

As mentioned, YABTCL’s website has a poor presentation of useful information regarding the games and the site’s system and policies. We have compiled the following useful links so you can quickly refer to them to get acquainted with YABTCL faster.

Find overviews of YABTCL’s games in this link. For a guide on registering for an account, making deposits and withdrawals, and lottery schedules, go to the Help section of the site. Unfortunately, there is no FAQ page. This is the closest we can find to an FAQ. You can also go to YABTCL’s social media accounts to get updates or to send messages: Facebook, Twitter.

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Play for Fun feature
• Free bitcons offered
• Provably fair games
• Free lottery game offered

Cons

• Ads everywhere!
• User interface requires some time getting used to
• “Playing without registering” (as indicated on the homepage) is a misnomer. You are still essentially signing up for an account using the bitcoin wallet address.
• Poorly organized information presentation on the website. Some important pages don’t have their corresponding homepage navigation links.
• Ambiguous reward system for those who help in the website’s translation to different languages
• Some links point to pages that don’t contain the information you expect to find like the affiliate program link presented on the homepage. The link for purportedly lowering the house edge also points to an irrelevant page/tab.
• No deposit bonuses and rewards program
• No live chat and telephone support