FedNow Ignites the Race for Instant Payments and Changes the Game for iGaming, Affiliates, and Wallets
Over the past two years, the instant payments debate in the United States has stopped being a talking point at banking conferences and turned into real infrastructure. Since its launch in July 2023, the FedNow Service, the Federal Reserve’s new instant rail, has allowed banks and credit unions to settle transfers in seconds, 24/7, without depending on clearing windows or business hours.
By July 2025, FedNow executives were celebrating the milestone of more than 1,400 participants, up from around 900 banks and credit unions at the one-year mark, with both volume and value of transactions growing strongly quarter after quarter.
At the same time, the US commercial gaming industry hit a record in 2024, reaching 71.9 billion dollars in revenue, driven largely by iGaming and mobile betting.
When you place those two trends side by side, real-time payment rails and a rapidly expanding online gaming sector, it becomes clear why operators, affiliates, and digital wallets are rewriting their deposit and withdrawal strategies for the coming years.
FedNow, RTP, and the Race for More Speed
For the average player, instant payment is not a technical acronym; it is an expectation. They are used to buffer-free streaming, same-day delivery, Zelle, and contactless payments. When it is time to cash out winnings, that is where friction shows up. Manual checks, closed banking windows, and ACH transfers that still take hours or days.
This is where rails like FedNow and the private RTP® network from The Clearing House come onto the iGaming radar. Both settle interbank payments in seconds, around the clock, and were designed precisely for use cases such as instant payroll, e-commerce refunds, and funding and defunding digital wallets.
In practice, nothing stops withdrawals from regulated betting and online casino sites from riding those rails, as long as sponsor banks, processors, and operators are all connected.
That is also why, in reviews and comparison sites, the search for instant payout casinos in the US is intensifying. This has become a major tie-breaker when choosing an online platform. Players care less about exotic bonuses and more about whether the money lands in their bank account or digital wallet within minutes.
For any operator that wants to compete in this space, the question is no longer just which methods to offer, but which settlement rails can actually support the promise they are putting in their marketing.
What Changes in the US Payments Infrastructure
Despite all the innovation talk, the US payments system still has one foot in the twentieth century. According to the 2025 Association for Financial Professionals Payments Fraud and Control Survey, cited by NACHA, 91% of organizations still use checks, even though they are the payment method most exposed to fraud.
At the same time, recent research shows that instant payments are a strategic priority for financial institutions in 2025, precisely because corporate and retail clients now expect real-time settlement.
FedNow was launched to attack that gap. It settles each payment individually, in real time, with final settlement happening in Federal Reserve master accounts. Two years in, the Fed’s own communications highlight that there are now more than 1,400 participating institutions across all 50 states.
Transaction volume has also climbed sharply quarter after quarter, with strong growth in use cases like instant payroll, funding investment accounts, digital wallets, and insurance payouts.
On top of that, adoption of instant rails tends to follow an exponential curve. Once the network reaches critical mass, the share of these payments in total electronic volume can reach something like 25% in three years, as use cases multiply and smaller banks join the network.
Meanwhile, the competing RTP® rail, operated by the private sector, has been growing since 2017. In practice, many US banks will live in a multi-rail world: ACH, cards, wires, RTP, and FedNow, choosing the path based on cost, ticket size, risk, and speed.
For iGaming, that means more options under the hood, powering the same instant withdrawal experience the user sees on screen. In this sector, the pressure for real-time payments comes from two angles. The first is macroeconomic.
According to the American Gaming Association, US commercial gaming revenue grew 7.5% year over year and hit a fourth consecutive annual record. Growth has been particularly strong in mobile sports betting. In other words, this is a big enough industry to justify heavy investment in payment infrastructure. The second driver is purely competitive.
In markets where multiple operators offer essentially the same portfolio of slots, table games, and sports bets, factors like withdrawal speed, clarity of terms, and transparency around payout limits become real differentiators.
How This Affects Operators and Wallets
With instant rails gaining traction and the US online gaming market expanding, each player in the ecosystem will react in its own way. For licensed operators, the priority is to line up marketing promises with what the back office can actually deliver.
Digital wallets serving iGaming users, on the other hand, have a chance to become the preferred front end for American players, as long as they can plug into FedNow and RTP, offer smooth UX for deposits and withdrawals, and clearly explain how they protect data and funds in a world where settlement happens in seconds.
- B.E. Delmer, Gambling911.com
