There are tons of payment methods at today’s online casinos. You can use your card, a mobile app or a browser extension. You could also send money from your bank account, a gift card or crypto wallet.
The presence of multiple payment options provide convenience. But they can also be confusing, especially if safety is your biggest concern. Good news! By law, all genuine online casinos can only work with secure payment options.
So, find a legitimate gambling site and you will have plenty of safe ways to deposit money. Speaking of which, these are the safest payment options at online casinos.
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Digital Wallets
Digital wallets are not just fast. They are also secure. Take PayPal as an example. It is one of the world’s largest online payment companies. It uses a website encrypted through SSL, meaning your data is safe at the site.
PayPal also gives you a plethora of ways to keep your account safe. You can use a password, add Two-Factor Authentication and enable OneTouch. With OneTouch, PayPal keeps your personal information safe.
What’s more, One Touch lets you login and bet at multiple casino sites without having to reveal your data to these operators.
PayPal aside, these are other safe e-wallets to consider:
- Google Pay
- Skrill
- Neteller
- EcoPayz
- Sofort
- Trustly
Besides security, many digital wallets also check other boxes for what to consider in a casino payment method. Think of speed. Everyone wants a fast payment option. Most e-wallets process payments instantly.
Generally speaking, top-tier e-wallets have low fees and allow you to deposit between $10 and $10,000. More importantly, they support multiple languages and run smoothly on mobile devices.
Credit/Debit Cards
Credit/debit cards have been around since the iGaming industry started. To date, most casinos still accept cards as a valid form of payment. The only exception is in countries that prohibit credits for casino deposits.
The UK is a good example. Britain banned credit cards at gambling sites in 2022. The country did it to reduce the number of people who bet with money they don’t own.
In many countries, you can still use cards for casino deposits. They are safe and usually protected from online fraud. The other option is to spend money in your bank account through a debit card.
For clarity, credit cards allow you to spend borrowed money. Debit cards rely on money in your bank account. Both card options are safe from hacking. But you need to be careful not to reveal your card information to strangers.
In case you’re wondering, these are the most popular cards at online casinos:
- Visa
- MasterCard
- Maestro
- Discover
Compared to digital wallets, credit/debit cards have higher fees. They also take longer to process payments, especially withdrawals. On the bright side, they are available at almost every betting website.
Still on card payments, you can also use prepaid gift cards to deposit money at online casinos that accept gift cards. Yes, you can also earn welcome bonuses if you use a gift card for deposits.
Crypto Payments
When Bitcoin launched in 2009, most people thought it was an anonymous means of payment. With time, it became clear that Bitcoin does not hide your identity entirely.
Still, to be clear, crypto is safe and secure. When you send funds to someone, you don’t need to provide your name, contacts and addresses. And if you use coins like Monero and ZCash, you can anonymize your payments.
That said, don’t use crypto for casino deposits with the expectation to hide your identity. By law, gambling sites have to collect your personal information and identify your data.
Use Bitcoin for casino deposits because it is secure, fast and cheap. Also, use it because it attracts huge bonuses. You could earn up to 5 bitcoins at crypto casinos.
Bonuses aside, you need crypto to play blockchain games. For the uninitiated, bitcoin and altcoins are founded on a technology called blockchain. It is a decentralized, secure ledger through which developers can create fraud-free apps and games.
Blockchain-based casino games are provably fair. You can use the algorithm used to determine whether you win or lose a slot, roulette or blockchain game.
Bank Transfer
Bank transfer is one of the oldest ways of sending money around the world. In the early days of iGaming, it was a pretty popular payment option, especially for deposits.
You see, there are not many ways to corrupt a bank payment. If you enter the correct information, your money has to get to the recipient. The problems comes if you’re dealing with a scam company.
Yes, you will send money to them. But they could close your casino account or confiscate your winnings. Wire transfer has no chargeback. Once you send your money to a casino, there’s no way to reverse it.
Other reasons that make wire payments less appealing to casino users is the fees and time involved. Some banks charge a flat fee of $5 to $20 for all payments. This is a lot of money to pay, especially if you only plan to deposit or withdraw a small amount of money.
Then you have to keep in mind that bank payments take one to five days. This is painfully long for deposits. But it’s a tolerable time frame if you win a huge amount of money and can only transfer it to your bank account.
Electronic Checks
This might come as a surprise to some, but checks were once accepted forms of payments at betting sites. But they fell out of popularity with the advent of e-wallets like PayPal.
In 2022, checks are experiencing a comeback. But this time, you don’t need a paper checkbook. We’re talking about e-Checks. They work like traditional checks. The only exception is that you must have money in your bank account for your bank to approve your e-Check.
The fact that you need money to get an e-Check from your bank makes this payment option safe for both players and casinos. E-checks are also faster than traditional paper checks: They take an average of 48 hours to complete.
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