The global online gambling market size is nothing short of massive. A 2020 study revealed the industry is worth an eye-watering US66.72 billion, and that figure continually rockets upwards.
COVID-19 related restrictions have changed gambler’s habits. Online gambling was always popular, but even more so in today’s climate where betting shops, poker rooms, and casinos remain shut or have severe capacity limits in place. An increasing number of people who like pacing wagers have shifted their focus to the internet.
Visa and MasterCard have long been the kings when it came to depositing and withdrawing funds from online gambling sites. Check the best online sports betting reviews, and every one of them lists Visa or MasterCard at the top of their list of banking options.
Both Visa and MasterCard are everywhere. The majority of debit cards use these companies to process payments, often straight from the user’s bank. They are quick and easy to use, but they come with their own issues and problems, not least gambling transactions showing up on users’ bank statements. Financial institutions tend not to take too kindly to their customers frequenting gambling sites, especially if those customers want a loan or mortgage. People who gamble are not ideal customers for financial products.
This fact, coupled with consumers now being aware of the importance of maintaining privacy, has seen them turn to Visa and MasterCard alternatives. These are the best of those alternatives.
Licenses Owned.
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Cryptocurrencies
The popularity of cryptocurrency continues soaring. You cannot look on the internet for longer than ten minutes without seeing a mention of the daddy of all cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin.
Bitcoin, a virtual currency with real monetary value, launched in 2009 and was practically worthless. It was only worthless because there were no exchanges to trade it or companies that accepted it as payment. That has changed significantly, especially over the past year, and a single Bitcoin is worth more than $60,000.
Transactions using Bitcoin are entirely private, which is one of the main reasons for its popularity. More and more companies accept Bitcoin for payments; even Tesla accepts the virtual currency to pay for its all-electric cars.
There are dozens of cryptocurrencies to choose from, although Bitcoin is by far their biggest, most valuable, and most popular. Other big hitters include Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, and Litecoin.
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PayPal
PayPal launched in 1998 when it was known as Confinity. It is now ranked in the top 250 of the largest United States corporations by revenue.
Retailers around the world accept PayPal for processing payments to and from their websites, including gaming websites. Almost 200 countries are on PayPal’s serviceable countries list. Only a handful of countries are not accepted, the majority of which are based in Africa.
Users can add funds to their PayPal account using a bank transfer, debit card, or peer-to-peer transfers. They then use PayPal to make their purchase, and the money is taken from their PayPal accounts. If the user has linked their bank account to their PayPal account, there is no need to load up their PayPal account with funds.
PayPal transactions are almost instantaneous, which is one reason for their popularity. They are also relatively private with the user’s bank only knowing they transferred money to PayPal, but not the money’s final destination.
“Paypal” by BBC is licensed under CC BY 3.0
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e-Wallets, Including Neteller and Skrill
Online poker players are among the biggest users of the Skrill and Neteller e-wallets. These companies act in a similar fashion to PayPal, except they must be loaded with funds before they can be used to make a purchase; you cannot have funds automatically taken from your bank account.
Both Skrill and Neteller had a clampdown on using their services to fund gaming and gambling accounts. e-Wallets make their money by charging a transaction fee to either load up your wallet, make a purchase, or withdraw funds. The target site often pays transaction fees it is involved with, but all other costs are down to the user. This makes some e-Wallets expensive to use if you make a lot of transactions.