From traditional bank transactions to cryptocurrency payments: online casinos today offer you to choose from a wide range of payment options, whatever suits you. The online gambling industry is constantly expanding and looking for ways to facilitate and please its customers. Exactly one of those benefits and something that many players considers the best and easiest method of depositing and withdrawing funds are the so-called e-wallets. Electronic wallets were designed precisely with the intent to speed up and simplify payments, and one of the most popular e-wallets is PayPal.
About PayPal
PayPal is essentially an online account where you can send, receive and store money. It first appeared in 1999 as one of the first forms of online payment, under the name Cofinity. In 2001, it merged with Elon Musk’s X and became PayPal.Since then, it has become one of the most popular forms of online payment available in over 130 countries around the world.
A PayPal account is somewhat similar to a bank account, although PayPal itself is not under the umbrella of any bank, nor does it have physical branches anywhere in the world.
By now you must be wondering why you would opt to use this method of payment when gambling online instead of your good old, well-trusted bank account. Or you do have a PayPal account and you’re simply curious about what are the best PayPal casinos and wondering if it would be a good option to use.
Here is a list of all the pros and cons of Paypal casino payments:
Pros:
- It’s fast: The big advantage of Paypal is precisely its speed. Deposits go through almost instantly, allowing you to enjoy your favorite casino games right away. On the other hand, withdrawals are somewhat slower. They can take between an hour and a couple of hours, but certainly much faster than through the bank, with which you would have to wait between 2-5 days and in some cases up to 2 weeks.
- It’s secure: With Paypal, gambling operators and third parties don’t have access to your financial information or funds due to its security system that is strictly regulated. In this case, your PayPal account acts as a sort of middleman between your finances and the website.
- It’s trustworthy: As we have already established, PayPal is a company that has been on the market for over 20 years. It is a world-famous and recognized company with over 100 million users that cannot steal your money or simply disappear with it. It is above all a reliable and proven payment system.
- It’s convenient: Paypal is quick and easy to set up. When choosing a payment method while logging in to an online casino, entering and processing bank data can take a long time, while on the other hand, cryptocurrencies are quite complicated. Unlike them, only a valid e-mail address is needed to activate a PayPal account, after which the connection to your bank account happens very quickly. After that, all you have to do is transfer the funds to the e-wallet and then deposit them into the online casino.
- It’s widely accepted: Apart from the fact that today there are hundreds of online casinos that accept Paypal, there are also many online retailers that accept this form of payment as well, meaning that you can use the money that you have won in the casino instantly on online shopping.
- It’s free:Opening a Paypal account is completely free and it doesn’t require any special account maintenance fees.
With all that said, even though Paypal is a good payment method without many downsides there still are some that you need to keep in mind.
Cons:
- Fees:As we mentioned before, opening the account itself is completely free of charge, but withdrawing and receiving money does not come without a fee. These fees usually include a fixed cost with an addition of a certain percentage of the total amount. Also, currency conversion doesn’t come with the best rates. On top of that certain casinos can take up to 5% on the withdrawals you make to cover the cost of Paypal charges, chipping at your winnings significantly.
- Fraud: This one is likely to happen but easy to avoid. Since Paypal uses a strong security system, the only way to get to your account information is, well, through you. You will most definitely get scam e-mails from con artists claiming to be the Paypal management. It’s important to ignore these emails and only play on secure and reliable websites.
- Freezing accounts: Even though this is an increasingly rare phenomenon, it has happened that Paypal freezes accounts that are suspected of engaging in suspicious activities. This account freeze would make your funds inaccessible for some time and could spoil your experience and make online gambling difficult.
- It’s illegal in some countries: A big problem is created by the fact that some countries have strict restrictions on Paypal and its users, while in some countries it is downright illegal. This means that a large number of payments will not be accepted if they come from the countries of Eastern Europe, Africa, or the Middle East. Always check your country’s laws regarding Paypal.
It’s worth noting that even with a few downsides to PayPal it’s still considered to be one of the best, most reliable e-wallets and great for any sort of online payment. For most, the pros outweigh the cons but we leave it up to you to decide if you want to give it a chance or stick to your traditional paying methods.=
