It used to be hard to pay for a service all the way across the globe or gain some money from some far-off place on the Internet. The world economy is getting more sophisticated though and simultaneously more better lubricated and powerful. Many people love to blow off some steam by gambling online. They love the thrill of it and some of them even win more often than not. As of 2024, the iGaming industry was worth 79 billion dollars.
Sometimes however the card or bank you have just doesn’t function with that online casino. Sometimes you have to look for more creative ways out there. You may just find out you’re waiting a lot longer than you should be and way overpaying in commissions. So before you continue or start gambling online, take a review of the systems that are out there, and what’s available in your neck of the woods. In this piece, we’re going to talk about the different methods that you may or may not have considered for iGaming payments and withdrawals.
Direct Bank Transfers
First we start off with the oldest way of iGaming top-ups online. We all know that back in the day people only could use cash or coins. After that, was a long era of just bank transfers, and it actually dominated the early era of Internet gambling. Debit cards only went into mass use in the 1990s. These transfers are still a really good option if you are dealing with really big sums of cash, as the limits are sky high. In fact, they are the number one option worldwide, accounting for 40% of transactions. The downside though is they take days to process. Most popular are:
- SWIFT
- SEPA
Since this is a really old method, most casinos are going to offer it. Unfortunately, not all countries’ bank accounts are accepted though. All you have to do is fill out a bunch of numbers for the payment to complete. It is quite secure though, involving:
- encryption
- mutli-factor authentication
- secure socket layer protocols
Anti fraud systems are quite sharp.
Debit Cards
This is the second-most popular option transacting with casinos like Odds96. Almost everybody has a debit or credit card nowadays. We all know the information we provide, on the back and the front. Sometimes these include a 3D secure password too, depending on the issuer. The top cards are accepted globally, mainly Visa and Mastercard. In Asia UnionPay is a lot bigger.
A big benefit to these, is though you can’t deposit as much at once, they hit your casino account right away, so you don’t have to wait to play. And you already know how to use them. You probably use one every day. Again though, iGaming sites are picky about what countries’ debit cards they work with, either due to the issuer country or where they’re registered. Usually money laundering and crime are why countries are refused transactions with a casino.
e-Wallets
Third place in popularity are these. They are very fast and easy. Perhaps you’ve used PayPal or Skrill before. If you have never used Apple Pay or Google Pay, you should consider it, as it’s very convenient since you have your phone everywhere. That said the latter two can only be used for paying. One of the big benefits of e-wallets is you don’t need to enter super personal data. Usually just a phone number, email, or wallet number. So it’s very private, and on top of that you can hold a whole bunch of things. PayPal even supports crypto. But the fees can be pretty darn high.
There are a lot of e-wallets out there from different countries, and if you’re lucky, one of your national methods will be accepted.
Asia
China’s market is dominated by Alipay and WeChat Pay. If you’re there, you’d have to give somebody cash to put money on your account if you’re not Chinese. The country pretty much operates payments digitally though. The country famously prohibits any gambling though besides in Macau. In India, there’s paytm and PhonePe, but only in a few states is there any gambling.
- Philippines: people use GCash, PayMaya, and Coins.ph with a crypto integration.
- Indonesia: OVO, DANA, and GoPay
- Thailand: TrueMoney Wallet and PromptPay
- Japan: PayPay, EcoPayz, and Rakuten Pay
- South Korea: KakaoPay and Naver Pay
The West
People in Europe mostly opt for mobile payments like Apple Pay over digital wallets for deposits, 30 to 67% and 15-40%, since their bank accounts are widely accepted anyway. PayPal dominates here just like in North America though followed by Skrill and Neteller. Venmo, a subsidiary of PayPal, has become big in USA. Cash App is popular throughout Canada and USA. People can hold money in both USD and CAD. Australia also uses Klarna, and is regulated by state.
In Canada only the provinces are allowed to legally run casinos. In USA, iGaming is allowed in 7 states. In Europe, it’s mostly legal and heavily taxed and regulated or only can be run by the state.
Latin America
A2A is growing in popularity in Brazil, using PIX open banking. AstroyPay is a big wallet throughout Latin America. Local fintech wallets exist too like:
- Mercado Pago, the biggest e-wallet in Argentina
- Chile’s WebPay, RedCompra, and Servipag.
- Colombia’s PSE, Daviplata & Nequi
Much of this continent is experiencing a sudden explosion of iGaming policy liberalization.
Africa
Here, people mostly bet on football only and don’t gamble as much in most countries. That said, her eof the biggest local wallets are:
- M-Pesa, big in countries like Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. Airtel and Tigo Pesa are also widespread here.
- Paystack and Opay in Nigeria
- EFTPay and OZOW in South Africa
Of course, the same international systems are available in most countries here too like PayPal, Wise, and EZPayz.
Crypto
This is the height of privacy. You don’t have to enter your personal info at all, or your banking info. They also usually process at lightning speed at rock bottom fees. The downside is once you deposit money in crypto or take it out in crypto, that value could totally crash, or it could conversely rise. Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin, and Cardano are very big. The leader in privacy of all crypto coins right now is Monero. These coins require a crypto wallet with a public and private key. It’s simpler than it sounds.
They have not come anywhere near mainstream acceptance though and it takes technological integration.
Instant Banking
These are extremely convenient options as all you do is whip out your phone, log into your bank app, scan a bar code, and press confirm, and you’re pretty much done. They’re created for the purpose of helping people exchange money with complete liquidity; however, the main downside is they’re heavily regional, not often supported to operate with casinos, and usually suited for specific countries. Europe, however, allows many of the same systems to work in many of the continent’s countries, systems like:
- Trustly
- Sofort
- Giropay
- IDEAL
Prepaid Cards
If you want to send somebody a gift and don’t know what, like your grandma, this is a good choice. It will also ensure you don’t overspend as there’s already a limit on them. These are sold at stores and normally can’t be recharged, nor can it hold very much of a balance to start with. So it’s not a universal solution. They’re also a bit more private for depositing. Koho in USA is an option.
