The U.S.-based gambling website DerbyJackpot.com partnered with merchant payment processor GoCoin to allow its customers to bet on horse races using Bitcoins, becoming the first U.S.-regulated gambling site to accept the digital currency.

“Having spent the last 18 months circling the globe educating gaming and financial regulators in Europe and Southeast Asia, I’m thrilled to see the U.S. be the first to market with a legal-regulated real-money gaming site with DerbyJackpot,” said GoCoin CEO Steve Beauregard. “And being from Maryland, I’m especially proud to see the launch on the eve of the Preakness Stakes.”

“As a Bitcoin company, compliance needs to be top of mind. Our compliance team was uber impressed with the thoughtfulness and thoroughness of the DerbyJackpot compliance program, that they were a natural fit for GoCoin,” Beauregard added.

DerbyJackpot.com told Bitcoin Magazine they chose to accept bitcoin due to numerous requests from customers.