Top Paypal online casinos in 2023
The best Paypal casinos are heavily regulated and can legally offer online gambling to players in certain countries. Essentially, if you are looking to play at an online casino with Paypal, you will need to be located somewhere like the UK where this web wallet operates and there is also legal gambling. Our guide to the top Paypal online casinos will teach you everything you need to know, including how it works, the fees, how to make casino withdrawals and more.
Best Paypal casinos in 2023:
An overview of Paypal gambling deposits
PAYPAL is widely used to fund online gambling accounts, with the payment processing giant operating in most regulated markets.
As a listed company with plenty to lose, Paypal will not process payments to offshore online casinos, meaning if your country has strict gambling laws and has banned online casinos, you will not be able to use this method.
Paypal is widely used in the United Kingdom, Canada, Denmark and Sweden for online casino deposits, with many other countries also having access to this payment method. Countries who notably can’t use Paypal for casino deposits include the USA (although states are already introducing it), Australia and China.
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Best Paypal casinos in 2023
As we have previously mentioned, Paypal cannot be used everywhere, so some online casinos might still offer it as an option even though you cannot use it — it will all depend on your local laws. The following online casinos all offer Paypal as a payment method.
The best Paypal casinos allow you to fund your real money gambling accounts instantly, work across multiple platforms — meaning you can deposit on your mobile, desktop and even on things like smart TVs.
Paypal gambling sites will also have 1000s of real money casino games, with these including 100s of table games like blackjack, roulette, baccarat and poker.
But without a doubt the highlight of Paypal casinos, and online casinos in general, is online slots, with the digital incarnation of the slot machine taking them to a higher level than they have ever been before.
Step by step guide: Making Paypal deposits to online casinos
Once you have determined you are eligible to make gambling deposits with Paypal, it is a very easy process to deposit real money. It should realistically take you less than five minutes to sign up at an online casino and fund your account with Paypal. In this section we’ll run you through the steps to firstly sign up with Paypal, then a casino and finally make a deposit.
- Find an online casino with Paypal deposits:
This is half the battle when looking to gamble online with Paypal — finding a casino that accepts this deposit method. The two things you need to ensure when finding a Paypal casino is whether they are licensed in your jurisdiction and what their reputation is like. Casino review sites like the World Gambling List are the best way to find safe casinos.
- To use Paypal you need to hold a Paypal account:
You need to be an account holder with Paypal. You can create an account right here on the Paypal website. It is free and only a five-minute process, although you may have to supply some documents to prove your identity at a later date. Paypal is a highly regulated banking method and will only allow gambling deposits in regulated markets. So this means some countries, like Australia, will allow Paypal for online transactions but you won’t find it at gambling sites.
- Fund your Paypal account:
You need to fund your Paypal account, which can be done by linking a credit or debit card to your Paypal account or through various other methods. The two options for getting your Paypal account functional are to link a card to your account and it will be debited whenever you buy anything online, or transfer money to your Paypal account, where it will be held digitally until you spend it.
- The Paypal casino deposit process begins
Once you have an active Paypal account, you visit the banking section of the online casino you wish to deposit at and choose Paypal as your deposit method.
- Logging into Paypal and deposit amount
Some online casinos will have restrictions on how much or how little you can deposit, but as a general rule the next step of depositing to online casinos with Paypal is to enter in the amount you wish to deposit. Continue to your Paypal account, where you may have to log in if you are not already. After you are inside your Paypal account you will be prompted to approve the payment, which will be displayed in the currency of your account, even if your casino deposit was made in another currency.
- Paypal casino deposit approval
After approving your casino deposit with Paypal, you will most likely be kicked back to the casino after a confirmation screen. If not, visit the casino page and refresh it. You should now see your balance updated to reflect your deposit.
- Troubleshooting online casino deposits with Paypal
It’s very important that you can reach the online casino if anything goes wrong with your Paypal casino deposit, so ensure that they have a functional customer service department before making a deposit. Using sites like the World Gambling List to read reviews and get a handle on a casino’s reputation can be the difference between staying safe and being shafted by a Paypal casino.
Funding a Paypal web wallet
Paypal, as one of the biggest payment processors in the world, has several different ways you can fund your account.
These include obvious methods such as credit and debit cards. It is possible to link your card, so when you buy something online with Paypal it just debits your card.
It is also possible to transfer money between a linked bank account and your Paypal account, although this is not an instant method.
Paypal Cash allows you to deposit into your Paypal account from a local retailer. This works by visiting the Paypal website and finding a retailer that accepts payments. Paypal will then give you a digital barcode to present to the retailer where you can deposit your money. There is usually a small fee to make these deposits.
Another option to fund your account is by applying for a Paypal Cash Card, which is only available in some countries. In short you have a card which is linked to your Paypal account, which allows you to deposit cash at various retail outlets.
Paypal casino bonuses and free spins
One of the biggest perks of gambling at online casinos is that you can claim bonus offers — both those counted as new player bonuses and reload bonuses.
Unfortunately one of the pitfalls of depositing to online casinos with Paypal is that often it voids the bonus offers — although not always.
What exactly is a Paypal casino bonus you might ask? Well a Paypal casino bonus might be a 100% matched deposit + 100 free spins. This means you could deposit 100 and have a total of 200 (100 real money + 100 bonus) and you will also have 100 free spins credited to your account after first deposit.
One thing to keep in mind when looking at Paypal casino bonus offers is that any bonus amount is likely to have wagering or turnover requirements, which simply means you have to gamble the bonus money before you can withdraw it. This stops players from simply claiming bonuses and cashing out — making a guaranteed profit.
Paypal casino deposit fees
Many services that Paypal provides are free, including making payments to online casinos, but this web wallet is obviously a business, so they do make money.
Some of the Paypal services that can incur a charge and you might find available at online casinos include:
Seller fees: When you sell something at an online vendor, you might be charged a fee, with these generally ranging anywhere from 1.5% up to 5% of your total transaction. We have come across some online casinos that have a small set sellers fee for making a Paypal deposit, but we don’t promote any site that does.
Receiving Payments: Most money transfers using Paypal, including those funded with a debit card or bank transfer, but credit card payments can have at least a 3.4% fee. As a general rule this fee will fall on the casino, rather than players, which is one of the reasons some gambling sites won’t allow new players to claim bonuses or promotions when depositing with Paypal.
Currency conversion: Currency conversion is something you need to understand when depositing at Paypal casinos, with these fees charged at a rate of at least 0.4% and can balloon out to over 7% depending on your funding method. For instance using a credit card and converting funds to an alternate currency could incur the maximum currency conversion fees.
Paypal gambling history
Paypal has a long and truly global history since being founded in 1998 as Confinity, by Elon Musk and friends in Pala Alto, California. The company quickly gained huge attention and was eventually sold to eBay in 2002 for $1.5 billion.
The company entered online gambling pretty much from its inception, with it widely used in the United States until 2002. Paypal, like many associated with online sports betting or casino, opted to forgo the US market with the uncertainty surrounding online gambling laws making the decision easy.
Despite the uncertainty in the USA after the withdrawal, Paypal continued to grow globally, although it was not until 2010 online casinos again began accepting Paypal payments from places such as the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada. The two first online casinos to officially begin accepting Paypal again were 32Red and Ladbrokes.
Growing regulatory requirements surrounding online casinos from about 2012 onwards has seen Paypal become a stickler for the rules, and only operate in countries with grey gambling laws or regulated industries.
As popular an online casino payment method as PayPal has become in the past 20 years, the company has had various changes, including being spun out of the eBay company and forming its own entity in 2005.
As for the European online gambling industry, which is becoming increasingly regulated as more countries follow the lead of Great Britain in liberating their gambling laws, Paypal is a behemoth, with most Malta Gaming Authority and United Kingdom Gambling Commission casinos having this payment method.
Paypal has a storied history in the USA
Before the passing of US legislation banning online gambling (the UIGEA) in November of 2005, PayPal was being extensively used at online casinos.
To be more precise, it was actually three years before the UIGEA, shortly after PayPal was acquired by eBay in October, 2002, that the online payment processor announced it would cease facilitating deposits at internet betting sites (not just online casinos).
The very next year, PayPal disclosed in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission that it was being investigated by the US Attorney’s Office, largely spearheaded by the US Attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri.
While PayPal claims it acted in good faith and did not violate the USA Patriot Act and antiquated Wire Wager Act, the company nonetheless reached a $10 million settlement agreement with the US Department of Justice.
The agreement was allegedly based on revenue earned directly from online gambling transactions in 2002, which PayPal said accounted for 6% of the company’s gross revenue that year.
Considering that eBay bought PayPal for $1.5 billion, 6% goes to show just how much online gambling business was actually being done with US residents in 2002. In many ways, the settlement with Paypal helped serve as a benchmark for the growth of the online gambling industry in America.
And even though PayPal dropped out of the gaming business, there was nothing stopping the continued growth of an industry that is now estimated to be worth $150 billion worldwide.
Other eWallets such as Neteller, picked up the slack, but just like PayPal, soon faced their own battles with the US government.
Paypal has finally re-entered the US gambling market in the wake of the updated PASPA ruling, with some sports betting sites and online casinos in New Jersey now accepting this method.
As more and more states across the USA embrace online gambling and sports betting more people are gaining access to Paypal deposits.
As a general rule of thumb if you are in a US state with regulated online gambling you will be able to fund your casino account with Paypal.
Alternatives to Paypal casino deposits
In years gone by Paypal casino deposits were much more popular right across the globe, with this because many gambling jurisdictions no longer accept this payment method. With Paypal withdrawing from so many markets it has opened to the door for less regulated payment companies to operate in the lucrative gambling space. Some of the casino payment types that can be used instead of Paypal include:
- ecoPayz casinos
- iDebit casinos
- InstaDebit casinos
- Neteller casinos
- Skrill casinos
Paypal casino deposits verdict — Are they safe?
Paypal is one of the biggest payment companies in the world, with an unparalleled record for safety. The best Paypal casinos include some of the biggest gambling brands in the world, with names like Bet365, William Hill, Pokerstars and 888 all having this payment type available. In conclusion, Paypal online casinos get the World Gambling List seal of approval.