Best Deposit Methods for Online Casinos and Poker Rooms for U.S. Players and Others

Best Deposit Methods for Online Casinos and Poker Rooms, for U.S. Players and Others

Online casinos and poker rooms are adding payment and withdrawal options rapidly. (Check our Microgaming, Playtech and Cryptologic casino listings, updated daily, to see which options are accepted where. For deposit options at online poker rooms, click on the Bonuses page of PokerTournamentFormula.com.)

If your favorite of these options isn't yet accepted at a particular casino or poker room, it will probably be accepted within a couple of months—the set-up time at casinos and poker rooms for new methods is very slow. Before you use a particular method to make a deposit, make sure the bonus you're interested in is available with the method you've chosen.

Also, be aware that the online gaming industry is just completing a process of relocating all their payment processing right now. That means that there may still be short-term "outages" of deposit options at a particular poker room or casino group while they finish getting set up with more secure and versatile payment processors.

Credit, Debit Cards and Anonymous Gift Cards

Credit cards or prepaid debit cards are usually an option for making deposits online. Players from the U.S., Canada, Japan and Australia, among other countries, may not be able to use credit cards issued by all banks in their own countries. But there are simple ways for such players to get credit cards that they can usually use for deposits in any online casino or poker room.

One way to get a credit or debit card that you can use for deposits at online casinos and poker rooms is to buy a gift card, such as Gift2go, at your local drug store or department store. You then open an online account to fund the card. (Note: Gift2go, like many other gift card and debit card providers, has a policy that U.S. residents may not use their cards at online gambling merchants. So, any player who opens an account using a U.S. address, or who opens or logs into a Gift2go account from a U.S. IP address, will be blocked from using the card at online casinos and poker rooms.)

Another way to get a credit or debit card that you can use for online gaming deposits is to open a foreign bank account at a bank that will issue the type of card you need. See our section below on offshore banking for our recommendations on the best European banks and types of accounts for your needs.

And you can also get a Visa debit card that you can use for deposits at online casinos and poker rooms by opening an account at Epassporte. Note: Epassporte wasn't working for online casino deposits about a month ago, but we've received reports that it has been working again lately.

There is one problem for all players in relying on Visa cards or Mastercards for deposits: The option keeps going through periodic shutdowns. You go in and try to use a card (or virtual card) at a place where you've used it many times before, and suddenly it won't work. Then you find that it won't work at any online gaming establishment. This goes on for a couple of weeks, then suddenly the card starts working again. Visa and Mastercard may have been a primary deposit mechanism for over 10 years now, but for 10+ years this cycle has been a pain in the neck to players.

It's hard to get an official story on why these shutdowns occur, and why players are then suddenly able to use their credit cards again, but since it's been going on for 10 years, the cycle is not likely to change. That is why we recommend that long-term online players choose another option.

Paysafe Card is a non-Visa/Mastercard debit card choice that can be purchased over the counter in Europe or online at Wertkartenverkauf. (You can read the site in English as well as German and other languages.) The good thing about the Paysafe Card is that it doesn't go through the periodic deposit shutdowns that players experience with Visa and Mastercard credit and debit cards. The bad thing is that it has nowhere near the universal acceptance of Visa and Mastercard. Paysafe Card is not available to players who use a U.S. address, bank account, or IP to set up and fund their accounts.

Be sure to save any debit card even after you use all the money on it. You may have to send in a copy of the card to cash out. If you deposit by credit or debit card, you will usually want to withdraw by check, wire transfer, or Ecocard. Moneybookers, Neteller, or Click2Pay may also be available as a withdrawal option.

Recommended E-Wallets

Players who live outside the U.S. may choose Moneybookers or Click2Pay for their online deposit needs. (Click2Pay is theoretically still available for U.S. players who already have accounts, but it is very difficult to fund and withdraw from U.S. accounts.) Both of these e-wallets are honest, and both are accepted by a number of online casinos. Moneybookers has lower fees, better limits for big players, and is overall an excellent e-wallet for players in countries outside the U.S.

The one problem with Moneybookers, and any other publicly-held e-wallet (like Neteller), is that they have to answer to shareholders about possible regulatory problems, and there are "potential regulatory problems" with online gambling in most countries in the world. We believe players in many countries could be barred at any time from Moneybookers, or any other publicly-held e-wallet company. That is why we have switched entirely to privately-held e-wallet companies for our own play.

The privately-held e-wallet we most highly recommend is Ecocard. Ecocard is an efficient, well-run, versatile service with lower fees than most others, they accept players from all over the world (including the U.S.) and we believe all online casinos will accept Ecocard very soon.

The only drawback with Ecocard for players from the U.S. and some other countries is that both deposits and withdrawals must be sent by wire transfer, so you have to deal with the cost of the wire transfer fees. In many countries, however, you may deposit to a local Ecocard account via online transfer using your bank's online bill-pay feature, or even by cash deposit at Ecocard's local bank. Withdrawal by wire transfer to a U.S. bank will cost you $10 in Ecocard's fee, a $20 fee from Ecocard's bank, and possibly a receiving fee (typically $10) from your bank. So U.S. players, and others who must rely on wire transfers for deposit and withdrawal, don't want to be withdrawing small amounts by wire very often.

If you already have money in online casinos that accept Ecocard, you can fund your Ecocard account by simply withdrawing your money to it. An Ecocard is fast and easy to open. As with other e-wallets, be prepared to show a government ID when your deposits from your bank account or peer-to-peer transfers, or your withdrawals to your bank account, hit around $4000.

Note: There are still a few casinos where Ecocard is available as a deposit option but not a withdrawal option, or vice versa. Be careful before depositing that the casino has another reasonable withdrawal option for you to use.

Neteller remains another option for many players outside the U.S., Canada and Turkey, and after a terrible period of bad customer service, failure to process withdrawals, and missing deposits, Neteller seems to be functioning fairly normally again. However, we have a strong resentment of the way Neteller has treated U.S. players since the arrest of the Neteller founders, and you should be aware that Neteller has shown that if it runs into legal problems in any other countries where they still accept customers, fair treatment of those customers will be the last of their concerns.

UseMyBank for All Players with Canadian Bank Accounts

Whether or not you are a Canadian citizen, you can use UseMyBank to fund your online play as long as you have a Canadian bank account with online bill-pay features, and you open your casino account in Canadian dollars. Acceptance of UseMyBank is spreading rapidly among online casinos.

Again, if you want to be able to use UseMyBank, be sure to open your online casino account in Canadian dollars. If you have already opened your account in another currency, it is usually a terrible hassle to change to another currency, with high potential for misunderstandings and locked accounts.

You sign up for UseMyBank from within the online casino cashier. UseMyBank basically allows you to use your Canadian bank's online bill payment service to make deposits. It is 100% free to players, and your privacy is 100% protected by your bank.

UseMyBank deposits are credited instantly to your online casino or poker account and are eligible for instant withdrawal. UseMyBank is fast and easy to set up.

Western Union

Western Union is a deposit option at many online casinos and poker rooms, and it's a pretty good option if the casino will pay your transaction fees, which can be more expensive than the fees for other deposit methods.

You will have to contact the online casino for the name and location of the recipient to whom you must send your deposit. (You will probably not be sending the deposit directly to the casino; instead you will be sending it to an individual person who will pick it up for the casino.) If you have used Western Union previously, be aware that you should not automatically use the same recipient name and location that you have used before. You have to contact customer support for the recipient to use each time you deposit. You will also have to contact the casino to let them know that you have sent the deposit, and provide the "money transfer control number" of the transaction. The casino will have someone pick up the money and credit it to your account. Note: If you send information about your deposit by email rather than online support, it may take several days for the deposit to be credited. Online support can usually credit your account within hours.

Some tips: Western Union has various weird policies about money transfers that you should be aware of to avoid inconvenience. For example, if you want to send an online transfer from the U.S., Western Union will insist on calling you to confirm the transaction. And, when they call you, they will ask if you are sending money to a business, and/or if you personally know the person to whom you are sending money. If you say that you are sending money to a business, or that you don't personally know the person to whom you are sending money, they will refuse to process the online transfer for you.

Online Casino and Poker Room Deposit Options on the Horizon

We have also been seeing announcements about new deposit and withdrawal options opening up. MyWebATM is now available at Full Tilt Poker, although the sign-up process didn't work for any of us and we never received the follow-up call. There were also security issues with the application process at the time we tried to sign up.

If you're going to try to sign up for MyWebATM, be aware that you will be asked a number of questions based on information from a credit-reporting agency, like Experian. The problem seems to be that much of this information is very obscure, and you may not remember it. For example, I was asked to select between four banks at which I was reported to have opened a time account in 2002. I had no memory of opening a time account within the past 20 years. It turns out that they were asking about a GAP card that I used exactly once to get a 15% discount on some jeans, and that the GAP card had been issued by one of the four banks. Good luck dealing with this one.

Firepay executives are reportedly trying to take the company private in order to accept U.S. and Canadian customers again.

ActECash is an online payment service that has been available since 2001. Casino on Net now accepts deposit by ActECash. ActECash allows customers in some countries, including the UK, Mexico and Brazil, to deposit cash to their ActECash accounts at merchants and special terminals. ) U.S. players who can get to Mexico can make cash deposits to an online merchant at any HSBC/Bital bank in Mexico.) ActECash is free to customers except for reasonable flat fees for withdrawals. Customers who earn "Gold" status accounts can deposit up to $25,000 a month or $40,000 a year into their accounts by bank wire (up to $100,000 a year if you can get to the UK to deposit via Paypoint. If acceptance of ActECash grows more widespread among online casinos and poker rooms, we'll check them out further.

We're also hearing that Smarteller may become an option within a few months. Another service called Youteller is expected to open soon, and will be accepting all players, including U.S. players, but they have also announced their deposit and transaction limit will be only £150.

And Epay is a service that has offered an unlimited, reloadable virtual Visa or Mastercard, but not consistently. Epay opened about a year ago, and had a lot of technical problems for about the first six months, along with a number of customer support problems. But a year seems to have at least proven them honest. The Epay site says you can fund your Epay account by wire transfer or credit card, but the last time we checked, those options weren't really available. At that time, the only way to fund your Epay virtual debit card was by a transfer from an E-gold or Pecunix account (both of which are much beloved by the privacy crowd, because they allow you to put cash online). We will not recommend them until we've tested them ourselves, but they may have possibilities. We will review all of these options once their services are fully up and running. Right now, Epay is not accepted directly by any online gaming merchants that we're aware of.

In the U.S., there's a lot of legal debate on whether any local state law applies to online gambling and poker, since the actual betting occurs outside of the state. We don't really know the answer to that, since no player has ever been charged, but here is the opinion of Lawrence G. Walters, Attorney at Law (excerpted from Breaking Down the UIGEA):

While state law supposedly provides the substantive basis for determining whether gambling financial transactions are prohibited under the Act, the application of state law to Internet commerce may result in insurmountable constitutional problems for the government. All state laws that seek to regulate global commerce such as Internet gambling may be unconstitutional under the “dormant” Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution. Under this argument, state laws which regulate national (or international) commerce are unconstitutional, since such commercial activity should only be regulated at the federal level. The reasoning behind this legal principle relates to the need for efficient and uniform execution of commercial transactions over state lines. It would be unreasonable to require a merchant to anticipate and comply with a hodgepodge of inconsistent state laws when attempting to engage in commerce at the national level. For this reason, industries such as the railroads and airlines are generally only subject to national, as opposed to state, regulation. Thus far, the courts have not hesitated in applying dormant Commerce Clause principles to attempted state-level regulation of Internet commerce. Virtually all state-level restrictions on Internet commerce have been struck down on this basis. While this argument has not been considered by the courts in relation to online gambling, the courts should be expected to use a similar analysis to that which has invalided state laws attempting to restrict commercial adult websites.

For players' information, the states that have passed anti-online-gambling laws are: Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Washington, Indiana, Nevada, Oregon, Louisiana, New Jersey, New York and South Dakota.

Free games are available at every casino and poker room we list for any players restricted by law from playing with real money.

Recommended Offshore Banking Options for Funding Online Play

Offshore bank accounts are 100% legal, and it is 100% legal to fund your online play through offshore accounts. Offshore banks typically charge much lower fees than U.S. banks for international wire transfers and for cashing international checks. Offshore accounts also give you easy access to trading in international currencies, stocks and bonds. Plus, an offshore account gives you a way to get your money out of U.S. dollars (or other currencies) as they continue to sink in value due to government mismanagement of the economy. For example, U.S. Vice President Cheney, who knew what the consequences of his administration's policies would be, moved his money out of U.S. dollars over a year ago to protect his wealth. How about you?

Note: While it is fast and easy to open a personal account at many offshore banks, it is usually more complicated to open a business account. If you are interested in opening an offshore business account, ask for more advice on our forums.

Banking In Canada

If you can get to Canada, you can open a bank account there as long as you have a passport and other government-issued ID, such as a driver's license. (We like RBC Royal Bank for online services, numerous branches, low fees and other account features). Be sure to call the specific branch of the bank at which you wish to open an account to make sure in advance about their requirements, and to make an appointment. Many Canadian banks will not be able to help you open an account without an appointment.

As mentioned above, if you open a bank account in Canada, you can use UseMyBank to fund your online play wherever these services are accepted. Again, if you want to be able to use UseMyBank, be sure to open your online casino account in Canadian dollars. (If you already have an account in another currency, you will have to call customer support at the casino to close that account and open another one for you in CAD.) You sign up for UseMyBank from within the casino cashier. UseMyBank basically allows you to use your Canadian bank's online bill payment service to make deposits. It is 100% free to players, and your privacy is 100% protected by your bank.

Banking in Europe

There are a number of other offshore banking options we like in Europe, and all of these accounts can be opened online and by mail, so you don't have to travel to the bank to open the account.

For example, we like Swissquote, a reputable Switzerland online bank and full-service broker, where you can open an account online. (Once you're at the Swissquote site, click on the link at the left for "Personal Accounts.") After filling out the online application honestly, you will receive an application package in the mail in 3 to 7 business days. The application package is very clear and easy to deal with. You must sign and date two forms: the account opening contract and the general business conditions booklet. You send those, with a certified photocopy of your passport, back to the bank in the pre-addressed envelope provided in the package (be sure to add the country "Switzerland" to the address if you are mailing it from outside Switzerland).

For information on what qualifies as a "certified copy" of your passport, see Wikipedia on certified copies. If you still have questions, feel free to ask us on the Blackjack Forum message boards, or watch for our upcoming article on offshore banking.

After Swissquote receives these materials, they will open your account, send you your personal access code for online banking, and you'll be up and running! You can then get a Switzerland-based Visa credit card attached to your Swissquote account for easy deposit at any online casino or poker room. Swissquote has a low minimum balance requirement, reasonable fees and excellent online banking services. Your credit card limit will be half of your amount on deposit.

Excellent Europe-based Visa debit cards are also available to players all over the world. These are suitable even for smaller bankrolls. One that we like in particular is the International Visa Electron or Virtual Visa debit card available from Parex Bank, in Riga, Latvia. You may apply for the account online (you will be required to send in a photocopy of your passport and a certified signature card).

The annual fee for the Parex Bank virtual Visa card for online use is $/€25, which is well below the annual fee charged by other honest banks we've found so far. There is no need to maintain an extra security deposit for the card—you may use up to the full amount you've deposited to fund the card. There are no interest fees unless you somehow overdraw the amount for which you've funded the card. You may fund the card by wire transfer or check, and you may access your account information online. There is a 1% fee for every online purchase or deposit made with the card. For further information, see Parex Bank Virtual Visa Cards, or wait for our article. Parex also offers other Visa card options with other fee arrangements—check their web site to find out the best option for your bankroll.

We also like offshore, online banking options in other European, Asian and Caribbean countries. Some of these tend to be better suited for larger bankrolls. To be able to give you accurate information on the best of these and the easiest ways to open them, we've opened accounts in a number of them.

See our March 2007 Blackjack Forumarticle "Complete Guide to Offshore Bank Accounts for Funding Your Online Casino and Poker Play" for more detailed information on offshore accounts.

Neteller Advisory for Players Outside the U.S.

Neteller seems to have been working more smoothly for most players recently. As long as you live outside the U.S., Canada, and Turkey, Neteller is probably available for you at the moment, although there is some question whether Neteller will be available for long in China and other countries in Asia.

We hesitate to recommend Neteller, because of their terrible treatment of customers in the U.S. after the arrest of their founders. It is clear to us that, if Neteller runs into any legal problems in any country where they operate, fair treatment of their customers in that country will be the last of their concerns. ♠

Back to Blackjack Forum Online Home