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In recent years, the online casino industry has gone from strength to strength and has now established itself as one of the go-to online entertainment avenues. In the past, there were only a handful of markets that had taken the plunge and created legislation for online casino game play. In the present day, countries, and markets all over the world are looking to join the movement to keep up with the evolution of popular digital entertainment.
As a result of technological advances, the finance world has also undergone a significant makeover. Physical cash and plastic cards are being slowly rendered obsolete, replaced by peer-to-peer, contactless transfers of funds from digital devices such as smartphones and even smart watches.
The online casino industry has also kept tabs of society’s innovations to offer its users the most contemporary deposit and payment methods. But in a constantly evolving financial landscape, which methods are the best to use on online casinos in the present day?
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Debit and Credit Cards
Once upon a time, debit and credit cards and chip and pin technology was revolutionary and state-of-the-art. They were one of the original methods to fund online casino play when the activity first emerged. Debit cards are still universally available as a payment method, but credit cards are slightly more contentious.
When online casinos first emerged, credit cards were commonly used on online casino platforms. Credit card casinos still exist around the world, but many markets, including the UK, have banned the use of credit cards on their licensed operators due to the risk of overspending.
E-Wallets
To supplement the use of debit and credit cards for online casino game play, e-wallets emerged towards the end of the 1990’s. PayPal was the first major electronic payment system to launch the era of online payments. E-wallets are seen as an extension of a bank account and provide a straightforward way to transfer funds. Standard bank transfers are safe, but e-wallets provide extra trust with their additional layers of security, including encryption, tokenisation, and biometric authentication.
Cryptocurrency
Much like with credit cards, there is an element of contention around the use of cryptocurrency in some markets. In the UK (again), the integration of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum is still being analysed and discussed. The main concern from the UK Government and the UK Gambling Commission’s (UKGC) perspective is the origin of funds and the fact it is harder to regulate and trace a currency that exists purely in a digital format.
Wide Range of Options
The three ways of making payment mentioned in this piece represent the evolutionary timeline of online casino payment methods, and the advances made in technology over the decades. Cryptocurrency is seen as the next major step in currency and while it is not yet universally accepted and used, it certainly fits the digital DNA slowly being injected into society. Cryptocurrency could well be the future of payment methods on online casinos, but for now, there is plenty of choice for casino enthusiasts around the world.
- B.E. Delmer, Gambling911.com
