We live in the era of online gambling. The days of the brick-and-mortar casinos are gone to play your favorite slots or table sports. The same is true of visiting high-street physical betting chains to place sports bets. Everyone and their mother are now playing casino favorites anywhere, anytime, on online gambling platforms.
Online casinos are on the rise – particularly in these challenging times. No matter where you are, online casinos and sportsbooks are happy to serve you. What makes it easy to use a wide variety of online casino payment options open to prospective customers?
The flexibility of deposit and withdrawal options that online casinos provide makes it possible for players worldwide to find and play a provider that matches them individually.
However, the mileage can vary depending on the country in which you reside, based on the affordability, comfort, and protection of these resources.
Below we review the various payment methods.
The ability to make deposits and withdrawals speedily and efficiently is one of the features every punter looks out for in an online casino.
Most sportsbooks and online casinos provide various methods for deposits and withdrawals. Such services enable you to make a deposit using a payment method only, while others can redeem your winnings using your preferred deposit method. And much of the time, you can only borrow money using the same form you used for the deposit.
Considering the options that most casinos provide, performing payout transactions can be challenging to manage. Nonetheless, to help you select the payment method that fits your personal needs, we have built a detailed guide to the best online gambling payment methods.
Credit and Debit Cards
This is probably one of the most common payment methods, and every online casino has one form of card deposit or withdrawal option. Casinos located in the European and the American region is much more known to use card options. Here are some facts; the percentage used for each country include;
- France 52%
- In the United Kingdom, 49%
- Belgium 47%
- Spain 36%
Typically, most online sportsbooks and casinos accept Visa, Mastercard, and Maestro. Accessibility is the main advantage of using credit and debit cards. That’s because basically everyone will register for a credit/debit card to use it worldwide.
However, their most significant downside is that a rising majority of banks do not allow online gambling payments.
This activity is entirely beyond the jurisdiction of the authorizing bank, even as most banks do have their internal policies regulating online gambling deals.
And lately, credit card companies have been subject to tight regulations arising from their use as an online casino payment process.
E-Wallets
Most online casinos have started adopting casinos; thus, e-wallets have been poised to dominate the market share of online payment methods because of their simplicity and fast withdrawal.
Although, one disadvantage is that most e-wallets charge their clients transaction fees. However, these fees are relatively small and are offset by loyalty programs that the e-wallet providers offer.
Paysafecard
This wallet used to be known as the Moneybookers. It’s an e-wallet provider renowned for its reliability. Players will use this prepaid card with coupons with a unique 16-number PIN code. Now it’s owned by Skrill.
Skrill
Skrill is a prominent e-wallet alternative supervised and controlled by UK law and operates much as PayPal does. You will upload your online account and use it to finance online casino deposits and withdrawals. It’s available in almost every nation.
Neteller
Like Skrill, Neteller is an e-wallet that used to be the leading provider of online gaming payments but has since diminished due to the increasing payment methods.
It remains, however, a common approach that is embraced almost everywhere. You can deposit as you would with PayPal and withdraw easily either by using your Net+ card or moving the balance to your bank account.
EcoPayz
This is another reliable e-wallet that is becoming extremely popular today. Its ecoAccount feature helps players to execute all their online casino transactions at one backend.
Bank Wire Transfers
Many iGaming developers and bookies support wire transfers as one of their crucial payment options. They are used as a safe form of payment by online casinos because of their strict criteria.
For example, wire transfers are subject to tighter KYC protocols to minimize potential money heists or otherwise.
Nevertheless, KYC procedures frequently take a bit of time; thus, this payment method takes about seven days to complete. Another downside is that bank charges for wire transfers can vary based on the amount deposited or withdrawn. For this cause, this payment form is more common in countries where simpler and faster online payment mechanisms are not as readily accessible.
Trustly
Trustly is one of the most common types of instant bank transfer services for iGaming operators and online sportsbooks, especially in Europe. Trustly acts as a middleman and moves funds directly from your bank to the online casino or sportsbook of your preference without giving any vital payment information to the iGaming operator.
iDEAL
Another standard instant bank transfer service is iDEAL, which is used more commonly in the Nordic countries. It is the most common in the Netherlands, with over 54% of all Dutch online payments processed through iDEAL for more than seven decades. iDEAL does not levy conversion costs and provides optimal transaction stability.
Giropay
Giropay is another online casino payment system that is close to iDEAL in type and purpose. The key benefit of this online payment process, like iDEAL, is its ease of use. This payment system is most widely used in Germany, with over 80 percent of German banks associated with Giropay.
Cryptocurrencies
More and more online sportsbooks and casino websites are beginning to use cryptocurrency as a payment tool. This is primarily attributed to the promised protection that Bitcoin and the other associated cryptocurrencies offer.
One of the pros of using Bitcoin as a payment option is that it allows American players to play digitally, as Bitcoin gaming would not come under the scope of “online gambling” in the United States and forbidden most US states at the time of this writing.
Nevertheless, online casinos that mainly accept cryptocurrency are beginning to operate outside existing European jurisdictions such as Malta. This includes brands like Bitstarz and CloudBet. More conventional high street sportsbooks are now starting to embrace cryptocurrency as a deposit process.
Payments in Bitcoin can be quick – but the exact specifics rely on what wallet you are using, as well as the withdrawal conditions of your preferred online casino.
The other crypto coins that gain popularity aside from Bitcoin include Monero, Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin. Their competence to handle transfers much cheaper and quicker than conventional Bitcoin makes them appealing online gaming payment options.
How iGaming operators guarantee safety with payment transactions
Online betting sites involve vast sums of money going in and out of the iGaming operator’s trunks. These deals also contain sensitive personal and financial records.
Reputable iGaming operators respect the identity of their players and take the appropriate measures to secure this publicly identifiable information.
Firewalls: Firewalls identify conditions that decide which traffic can be authorized to and from a network. This way, online casinos will discourage unauthorized traffic from accessing their websites.
Secure Socket Layer (SSL): SSLs describe the server details from which a given website originates. It establishes an encrypted link that holds confidential information in sections that need to be accessed by safe keys. Sites with the particular green bar near the URL show that they are SSL safe.
So which payment option is the best?
Deciding on the payment option depends on various factors, such as your region, the online casino, or your preference. No one payment processor is better than the other. What we have are some faster processors and some slower.