This article is a guest contribution from Nick Hill, Executive Director of PremierConsultingGambling and a member of the Bitcoin Association. This article originally appeared on CoinGeek. 

Since the dawn of mobile gambling, gaming has gone from strength to strength. Player numbers around the world have soared in recent years, fueled by the convenience and flexibility of online options. Compared to the pre-mobile days of exclusively physical, in-person gaming, the industry has already benefited hugely from advancing technologies.

Yet even still, technological barriers exist within the gaming sector that holds back progress. Trust and transparency remain a significant issue for some players, and for operators. Compliance with the licensing standards set by regulators and lawmakers pose their own problems for operators to solve. The gaming experience is reliant on often centralised systems, in themselves vulnerable to manipulation and hacking.

This is where blockchain comes in. Blockchain is already shaping the future of gaming, and is set to be the next big technology to ring sweeping changes through the sector—for the better. But why does gaming need blockchain, and what are the advantages of the technology for both operators and players?