You can now bet Crypto on hamster races. What could go wrong?

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Good news for those seeking fortune and feeling extremely brave: you can now earn crypto (and lose it too) by betting on hamster races online.

Quietly launched last week, the Hamsters.gga site claiming to host the world’s first live-streamed hamster race quickly amassed a devoted following of crypto gamers hoping to ride a fleet of six-inch-long rodents to untold riches, with racing hamsters like Popcorn, Buster and Sparky vying.

At semi-regular intervals, four hamsters at a time are placed in a custom-designed race equipped with automated starting stall doors. Until a given race begins, players with connected crypto wallets can wager any amount of Binance USD (BUSD) stablecoins on a competing race hamster of their choice.

Once the cabin doors are up, the race on the foot-long track is on, accompanied by a soothing soundtrack of bossa nova elevator music. In most races, hamsters tend to lie face down for a few minutes until a single winner crosses the finish line.

Winning bettors can split the pool of bets; 5% of all bets are absorbed by the house.

While the process may seem like a surefire path to lasting wealth to some, there’s a little catch: The races don’t actually happen the way you see them.

Instead, they’re pre-recorded by the team of three developers and rodents that run the site. This is done, according to pseudonymous lead platform developer Dani, to avoid the possibility of a live stream catching a hamster dying mid-stream, or continuing indefinitely if the hamsters decide not to move.

When asked how such a setup could prevent Dani and his team members from betting themselves on hamsters they knew would win, the developer told Decrypt: Unfortunately, there’s no way to guarantee that.

Dani however insisted that he was there for the love of the game and also for the love of the rodents. Several years ago, he said he experimented with a similar concept involving racing mice.

He never got big, unfortunately, he said.

This time around, Dani has incorporated tokenomicstheres a HAMS token that rewards hodlers with a taste of houses cut from losing bets. He’s also moved on to hamsters: they’re cuter, they don’t have tails and they come in many colors,” he explained. Dani and his team have nine hamsters in total; he says they are well cared for.

As for pesky questions of legality, Dani said he has no concerns.

We will definitely make sure they were legal, he said. In many countries, including the United States, it is illegal to operate or participate in a gambling operation that has not received a license to operate.

These lingering questions haven’t slowed down the meteoric growth of the Hamsters.gg community, however. The group’s Telegram channel has 2,384 members (and counting). On Twitter, the site has already garnered quite a bit of attention after going through the noise earlier today.

Sometimes you have to push the envelope to find out just how degenerate you really are.

Typical shit is not enough anymore

Luckily, there’s a new game in town.

See, real chads bet on hamster races with crypto. $HAMS @hamsters_gg is where the high rollers gamble

Little… pic.twitter.com/mTs35OS4NA

HC Trades (,) (@hc_trades) July 12, 2023

And for daring individuals who have already put their hard-earned crypto on the line to compete in this supposedly new performance sport, the thrill of hamster racing sounds quite engrossing.

Putting all my money on Oliver, wrote a hamster player in the Hamsters.gg race chat room earlier Thursday. Please put a gun to his head or my kid won’t go back to school supplies.

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