How to get money into an online casino

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1. Instant Check (aka, e-Check)

Some sites let you easily deposit money by just typing in your bank account number. They withdraw the money from your account as though it were a check. You might be rightly wary of giving an offshore online casino access to your bank account, which is why you should do this only with established, trusted outfits like Bodog.

In October 2006 the U.S. made it plainly illegal for banks to allow these kinds of transfers. The good news for players is that while your bank may run into problems with the feds, you won't: It's not against federal law for you to request the transfer; it's against the law for your bank to process it.

So why would they process it if it's against the law? Simple: It's impossible for them to know what the money is being used for. The online gambling site will use an intermediate company name so that it can't easily be identified as being gamling-related. Incidentally, this is why banks are up in arms over the legislation, because it's so difficult for them to comply with the law. In the meantime, this is the easiest option for deposits, if it's available at the site you want to play at. I just used it successfully at Bodog.

2. Credit cards

In the some cases you can easily by chips at a casino or poker room with a credit card, just by typing the number into the form on the casino site. That's if your bank doesn't block online gaming transactions. I tested about a dozen credit cards from various banks in January 2007 and was able to successfully deposit at Bodog with several of them, but several were also rejected. Here are the results of my tests:

Successful Deposit Bank of America (Visa) Capital One (Visa) Chase (Visa check card attached to checking account) First Equity Card (Visa) MBNA (Visa) Washington Mutual (Visa)

Unsuccessful Deposit Advanta (MasterCard) Citibank (MasterCard; all flavors -- Citibank, AT&T, Sears) Chase (Visa; various flavors: Chase, Amazon, First USA, PayPal) RBS (MasterCard)

Curiously, though, I tried to repeat my test on the same day and none of the six cards would work.

 

3. Online payment services

If you can't do an Instant Check and your credit card doesn't work, there are many services similar to PayPal that let you deposit money from a bank account or credit card. Not every casino accepts every service, though. Here's a list of the most popular services.

Service	Works at Bodog?	Takes new U.S. players	Notes
eWalletXpress	Yes	Yes	Pretty easy signup and activation. They charge a fee of $10 or 8.8% of your deposit, depending on which deposit method you choose.
NUcharge	Yes	Yes	I won't try these services because their signup or login pages are insecure. (More about insecure logins.)
Click2Pay	Yes	No
ATMonline	No	?	I haven't tried these because they're not accepted at Bodog, and Bodog is the only casino I play at.
Central Coin		?
Neteller	No	No
Moneybookers
InstaDebit
Neteller	They don't serve the online gambling business at all.
PayPal
FirePay

 I signed up for eWalletXpress and used it successfully.

4. Western Union (aka "Money Transfer")

I used this method successfully at Bodog, but it's a little cumbersome.

• First, call Bodog at 888-263-0000 and get the "Beneficiary Name". This changes often, so that's why I'm not posting it here. You have to call.
• Then, call Western Union at 800-225-5227 or go to their website to send the money with your credit card. If you do it by phone then you go through a long, laborious phone system, and then a rep comes on the line to confirm your info and get the beneficiary name. Then they'll give you a "control code".
• Finally, call Bodog back and give them the control code.

I think this whole process took maybe 10 minutes, so it's not instant, but it could be worse.

Western Union charges pretty hefty fees, but the good news is that if you deposit at least $500 then Bodog picks up the tab. They do this by adding the amount of the fees to your casino account. So if you deposited $800 and the fee was $70, Western Union will charge your card for $870, and then Bodog will give you $870 in chips. (Well, actually, they'll give you $950 in chips if it's your first deposit because they give you a 10% bonus the first time you play, but let's not split hairs.) So if you only want to spend $800, then you should deposit only about $735, which will cost you about $800 with the transaction fee, and then Bodog will put $800 in your casino account (plus maybe a 10% bonus).

Western Union isn't a good method for small deposits, because the fees are so high. A $100 deposit will run you $20 in fees, and Bodog won't pick up the tab unless you deposit at least $500.

But they're not good for really big deposits either. The most you can send via Western Union is $1000 to $3000 every month, depending on your "profile" (whatever that is) and the country you're sending the money to.

Cashing out

Okay, that's how you get money in. How do you get money out when you win big? Some casinos will pay out using one of those money-moving services listed above, or more likely they'll send you a check in the mail. They might require that you fax them a copy of your ID before your first withdrawal. Don't freak out, that's just standard security protocol at many online gaming sites.

Note that if you deposited with e-Check, you'll have to wait for that deposit to clear before your payout request will be processed. It can take up to two weeks for an e-Check to clear.

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