In this article, you will find some of the best casino payment providers to boost your iGaming business in 2024.
With the continued expansion of the gambling industry, there’s an ever-growing supply of emerging businesses that seek to meet the immense worldwide demand for gambling experiences to take advantage of the sector’s opportunities. This has created a fiercely competitive environment for operators, who will need to make use of the highest-quality backend products to stand out from their competitors. One of the most important systems utilized by industry firms is iGaming payment gateways.
iGaming payment gateway solutions are integral to the casino experience, as players need a way to collect their winnings and operators need a way to receive their earnings. That means that choosing the right casino payment provider is quite important, which is not made easy by the number of different currencies and payment methods available on the market. In this article, we’ll cover what operators need to look for when choosing payment providers to work with and which casino payment methods are the best for them.
What are the functions of a casino payment provider?
A casino payment provider is essential in the iGaming ecosystem, making sure the two parties get fast and safe financial transactions. These providers handle deposits and withdrawals, offering a huge diapason of payment options encompassing credit cards, e-wallets, as well as bank transfers. Below are some of the key functions that payment providers typically perform:
Transfer funds to the appropriate recipient
Casino payment providers develop and maintain specialized systems to facilitate the transfer of funds in a variety of forms between a player and an operator. Their job is to act as an intermediary to make sure that the correct amount of funds get sent to the rightful recipient in a timely manner. Gambling payment gateways are also responsible for the safety of the data of their customers. This is quite an important point, as data required to facilitate transactions to and from a casino is likely to contain a lot of sensitive personal identification information, such as passport or SSNs, addresses, and more.
Data security
A payment solution provider for online casinos that offers robust data security and has a good track record of keeping the data of its customers safe will also instill more confidence in newer gamblers who may be hesitant to try the pastime because of strict identity verification requirements. Taking this further, some gamblers seek much higher standards for data safety and privacy, making cryptocurrencies their preferred choice when enjoying the gambling pastime. However, while cryptocurrencies offer quick transfers and an excellent level of privacy and data security, it is often quite challenging to acquire them, especially for users who are new to the space. Fortunately, many crypto casino payment providers offer a user interface for casino players to acquire their coins. This brings us nicely to another thing many gambling payment gateways offer, user interfaces.
User interface
Many casino payment providers offer an interface to further streamline their users’ experiences. This mostly applies to casino payment providers offering online wallet services, through which their users can make purchases either directly off of their bank cards or by utilizing the wallet’s balance itself. As mentioned previously, many crypto-focused iGaming payment solution providers offer interfaces too, which are commonly used to help users purchase a wide variety of crypto assets and store them directly on an online casino account.
Currency conversion
Furthermore, another common use case of a dedicated user interface for a casino payment gateway is for currency conversion. This is particularly useful for online gambling websites that offer their services in a variety of countries around the globe, as they will be able to provide their player bases with a higher degree of localization. Casino payment providers that offer currency conversions also enable operators to maintain their user balances in only one currency, which can drastically simplify an online gambling website’s operations.
Payment gateways for online casinos mainly take the form of some sort of cloud-based software. Their functions seem pretty self-explanatory and simple at first, but there are a lot of intricacies when dealing with large amounts of transactions utilizing varying currencies. That means that not all casino payment service providers will offer all of the options and features that an operator may desire, or be available for the audiences an online casino may wish to target. Let’s now take a look at a few of the most important things iGaming operators should look for in prospecting casino payment provider partners to ensure a high-quality experience for their players.
Things to look for when choosing payment gateways for online casinos
The things that matter the most for online gambling companies boil down to a high degree of usability. This can be broken down into three key components that differentiate the best casino payment providers from the competition, namely availability, convenience, and minimal fees/limits. However, many other factors can be used when looking for the best iGaming payment providers as well, which we’ll cover next.
Availability
The first one is pretty self-explanatory, the more people can access an online casino payment method, the better. Most providers have their services available worldwide, although some payment solution providers for online casinos only work in a specific country, state, or province. These local options may sometimes be beneficial to have, which we will discuss more thoroughly a bit later. However, for most operators who want to have an international appeal, having worldwide availability is the way to go. Additionally, the regional availability of voucher-based payment gateways for online casinos is even more important, as these payment providers will need a physical presence in the markets they operate in to facilitate their services.
Supported Currencies
Checking the list of supported currencies is quite an important step in choosing which casino payment providers to work with. This is especially critical for international operators who work in a wide variety of jurisdictions, thus needing a large selection of supported currencies, and for casinos focusing on markets with relatively niche currencies that are only used domestically. However, choosing a casino payment provider that offers a wide variety of supported currencies can be beneficial for other operators as well, as it will be easier to expand the firm’s reach in the future.
Additionally, while most casino payment providers support a set of currencies outright, some companies support a wide range of currencies through conversions. This can effectively enable an operator to accept players and their local currencies from all around the globe, without having to keep a balance of all of the different currencies their players use. For operators that are looking to partner with casino payment providers that offer currency conversions, it is important to look for companies that offer the best rates and the lowest conversion fees.
Another point operators may need to look for when searching for iGaming payment solutions is their support for cryptocurrencies. This is quite useful for crypto gambling websites, as they can allow their players to purchase crypto tokens directly on their websites without having to visit a third-party exchange. Payment gateways for gambling businesses that offer integrations with cryptocurrencies are also an excellent choice for hybrid casinos operating with both crypto and fiat currencies.
Convenience
Tying in closely to the main objective of a high degree of usability, convenience is a pretty important factor. A large part of all casino payment methods are simple and effortless to use, offering instant transactions with a click of a button. There are, however, some methods that require more work than that, the classic example of which being bank wire transfers, which take a lot longer and require more paperwork to facilitate successfully. To get a seamless experience for the player, any barriers to entry need to be minimized or eliminated entirely, especially those relating to time, as delayed or slow transfers can directly delay the operator’s income.
While this is a significant concern for operators when it comes to players depositing, utilizing casino payment methods that aren’t as convenient to use for withdrawals is not as detrimental. In some cases, especially when paying out large winnings, players may prefer such methods, like the aforementioned wire transfer, as they are generally more appropriate for larger transactions due to their lower fees and higher transfer limits when compared to other popular casino payment methods. Speaking of which, transfer fees and limits are another set of variables that operators commonly aim to improve on.
Fees and limits
Some of the largest things getting in the way of players making deposits are transaction limits and fees. A lot of people view fees as their money just going nowhere and contributing nothing to the product they are purchasing, so it is important to get them as low as possible. The best casino payment providers will have no fees for the customers at all, instead taking a portion of the operator’s incoming transactions periodically, making them the most desirable ones for gambling firms. On the other hand, while limits seem to not be as big of a concern as fees, it is still important to maximize them to avoid any issues, especially when paying winning customers.
Supported Deposit Methods
This one mostly applies to online wallets that allow users to store a certain amount of funds on their accounts. While they will be utilizing the services of the casino payment provider to gamble, players will need to be able to deposit their funds into their wallets beforehand. Most online wallets will allow their users to make deposits with various bank cards, however, having more available options, such as cash, which can be achieved through voucher-based payment gateways, and popular payment solution providers like PayPal, will always be better.
Customer support
While players are unlikely to experience any issues when using the services of most high-quality casino payment providers, mishaps can happen. Because of this, it is important to assess the quality of the customer service offered by payment gateways for online casinos, as a negative experience with the payment provider may dissuade players from gambling on an operator’s website. Key contributors to a top-quality customer support experience include a sizable selection of communication types and a high level of availability, the latter of which is quite important for international operators that offer their services in numerous time zones. Moreover, gambling firms offering highly localized experiences may need to ensure that the casino payment providers they work with offer a wide selection of customer support languages as well.
Additionally, a high-quality customer support service aimed at a casino payment provider’s clients is just as important, as gambling firms may sometimes need to communicate with their casino payment gateway partners to deal with any arising challenges. Communication also plays a significant role in the initial stages of a collaboration between an iGaming operator and a casino payment provider, as gambling websites will often need to obtain approval to work with prominent payment gateways. Conveniently, this is our next point of discussion.
Ease of approval
To start working with any casino payment provider, operators will need merchant accounts. However, acquiring such accounts can be a challenge depending on which casino payment gateway the operator wishes to collaborate with. Established casino payment providers that have millions of users worldwide will be more protective of their businesses and may be more hesitant to work with smaller operators, especially if the gambling company does not hold many reputable licenses and certifications. Because of this, opting to utilize the services of payment providers that have a sizable presence in the gambling industry and already work with numerous casinos can be beneficial for upstart operators. Let’s explore the topic of why it is challenging to find casino payment providers a bit deeper.
Best casino payment providers
After learning about the main functions of casino payment providers and the most important things operators need to look for when choosing which companies to work with, let’s take a look at some of the most popular online casino payment providers out there, starting off with Skrill.
1. Skrill
Offering its own prepaid credit card, Skrill is quite a flexible online wallet. Their services are quick and require minimal fees on deposits, though they have a 5.5 dollar fee on withdrawals. They are quite popular with online gambling companies, so frequent gamblers will most likely already have a Skrill account.
Apart from gaming, the service is quite widespread in the jurisdictions it operates, further making it a good option for online gambling operators. Moreover, they are backed by Paysafe Group, which has a wealth of expertise in providing financial services around the world. Speaking of which, our next provider is also a subsidiary of the same corporation.
2. Neteller
Neteller is another prominent casino payment provider offered by Paysafe Group. It is focused more on money transfers, as opposed to offering a wallet solution, and works with a wide range of currencies worldwide. It supports processing from the most popular bank card types around the world, as well as from a couple of similar payment providers such as PaySafe and iDEAL, the latter of which we will explore later.
Additionally, Neteller can also be used with cryptocurrencies, offering users a higher degree of flexibility. The firm does have some downsides, however, requiring fees that hover around the 2.5% mark on average and having transaction limits of around 20 thousand currency units per month.
3. PayPal
PayPal is one of the most widely adopted payment solutions and online wallets in the world. Their services work pretty much anywhere, although some regions may have trouble when it comes to receiving money. The firm has a number of unique offerings, such as its own credit card and its Pay Later feature, the latter of which allows users to purchase items with a short-term loan.
PayPal works with pretty much all currencies out there and offers automatic currency conversions for its users, making it possible for an operator to not support all currencies directly yet be able to receive deposits with them. It also offers reasonable transfer fees of around 1.7% and generous transaction limits.
4. PayCryptos
Next up, let’s talk about a crypto-focused casino payment provider. PayCryptos is a payment gateway for online casinos developed by the iGaming provider SoftGamings. That means that the system is tailor-made for online gambling operations, making it a great option to integrate cryptocurrencies into an online casino website.
Just like the innovative technology it focuses on, the solution is available worldwide and offers competitive terms thanks to having no intermediaries to work around. It supports 8 blockchains and over 16 crypto coins, including some of the most popular ones on the market such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Tether, and Dogecoin.
5. Google Pay
Being available pretty much anywhere in the world on nearly all mobile devices, including Apple’s iPhones and iPads, Google Pay is an excellent payment gateway for online casinos. Allowing users to link their credit or debit cards to make transactions without inputting all of their data for each new service, Google Pay offers a lot of convenience for its customers.
It is also widely used around the world for day-to-day shopping and other activities, presenting a lower barrier to entry. The service offers low transaction fees of under 2%, although in certain regions less than ideal transaction limits may hinder its usability. However, Google Pay’s massive availability will easily overshadow any disadvantages.
6. Apple Pay
Being quite similar to the last service, Apple Pay offers a lot of the same benefits as Google Pay. It allows users to have multiple credit and debit cards and choose which one to use for any given transaction. Thanks to its ease of use, it is another excellent online casino payment method. In some cases it even outperforms its main competitor, Google Pay, by having lower fees and higher transaction limits.
Despite that, Apple Pay has one major drawback when it comes to its availability. The service is only available on Apple’s devices, which severely limits its use, given that iPhones make up a mere 30% of the smartphone market. However, for larger operators, the smaller percentage may still be big enough to consider integrating Apple Pay.
7. Interac e-Transfer
Up next, let’s explore a couple of localized options, starting with Interac e-Transfers. Widely used in Canada, e-Transfers have become one of the country’s most widely adopted payment services. It is used for a wide range of things from paying rent to getting paid for part-time jobs.
e-Transfers offer a secure and reliable way to transfer money to and from over 250 of Canada’s financial institutions, as well as over international borders thanks to Interac’s collaboration with Mastercard and Western Union. Combined with the fact that the country’s iGaming market is on the rise, obtaining a license in a few provinces and integrating Interac e-Transfers as a casino payment provider may be an excellent chance of being an early player in a jurisdiction with a lot of potential.
8. iDEAL
Sharing a lot of resemblances with the previous option, iDEAL is a popular payment service in the Netherlands. It lets users make purchases and transfers through the financial institution of their choice and is used for varying purposes in the country, just like its Canadian counterpart.
It works with the overwhelming majority of Dutch banks and offers a number of useful features, such as its QR code payment system, which makes paying as easy as scanning an image with a mobile device. iDEAL offers pretty low fees and has generous transfer limits. For operators looking to enter the Dutch iGaming market iDEAL is an excellent casino payment provider option.
9. Trustly
Trustly is quite a popular casino payment gateway, as the gambling industry is one of its main areas of focus. The firm’s services offer instantaneous deposits and withdrawals, helping players enjoy gambling experiences with ease. It also offers quite low fees at just 1.5%, although this number can be negotiated for larger businesses.
The payment provider works with not only online operators, but retail establishments as well. Through a simple integration, players can use the same account to enjoy a gambling business’s online and retail experiences.
Furthermore, Trustly offers a couple of special features for gambling establishments, with the main one being their Pay N Play service. This allows players to use their payment account to instantly sign up and start playing at any casinos that integrate the feature. Trustly also provides KYC solutions, helping operators offload some administrative tasks.
10. Neosurf
Neosurf is another payment provider that focuses a lot on the gambling industry. It can be found on the websites of quite a few prominent operators around the world, making it a great casino payment provider option. The firm offers a convenient solution with vouchers and an online account, allowing its users to deposit funds with both cash and transfers.
Neosurf supports many currencies, having its vouchers available in most major countries around the world. However, in places where they are not sold in stores, users can still make use of the service online.
Other benefits of the solution include low transaction fees, quick transfer times, and a convenient user interface that makes deposits effortless.
11. Jeton
Jeton is quite a popular payment provider for the iGaming industry. The firm offers an international online wallet solution that supports a wide variety of currencies and can be topped up utilizing over 70 widely-used payment methods from all around the world.
Its services are quite versatile, as Jeton offers quick transfers with low transaction fees. The payment provider’s transfer limits are quite generous as well, making it a good option for players to withdraw their winnings.
Jeton is also quite popular for purchasing cryptocurrencies to play at crypto casinos, as it has a unique one-tap purchasing function built-in for various crypto tokens. This makes web3 gambling much easier to enjoy, as players will only have to transfer their crypto assets to their casino accounts to start playing.
12. AstroPay
AstroPay is a popular online wallet solution. It is widely used in a wide variety of online casinos and offers consumers over 200 ways of depositing funds into their accounts. The payment provider has its services available in over 150 countries around the globe and has over 9 million active users, making it a great online casino wallet solution for international operators.
Furthermore, AstroPay also offers its users a unique loyalty program with tokens called AstroCoins, which program members can utilize to redeem rewards and special benefits. These rewards can be customized to closely match each user’s interests, with the program having six sports-related reward options available, including for football, basketball, tennis, and motorsports fans. This unique loyalty program makes the firm an excellent payment gateway for online casinos that have not implemented many player retention strategies.
Best types of casino payment methods
Lastly, each of the solution providers we explored offer various types of payment methods that handle currencies in different ways. Some methods utilize fiat currency, others specialize in cryptocurrencies, some combine the functionalities of a payment gateway and an online wallet, while others are used for direct transfers only. Let’s explore a number of these options. For a deeper dive into the topic of online casino payment methods, you can check out this article on AffPapa.
Credit/debit cards
Being one of the most popular ways to spend and receive money, bank cards are an excellent choice for an online gambling operation. They offer excellent levels of flexibility, generally having minimal fees, completing transfers instantly and offering pretty generous transaction limits. Because of this, most gambling operators use casino payment providers that can facilitate credit or debit card transfers. However, not all payment methods offered by banks are nearly perfect, such as bank transfers.
Bank transfer/check
Being the polar opposite of the previously discussed credit/debit card option, bank transfers are much rarer to see on an online casino. They offer much more substantial delays, have higher fees and are generally not as simple to use. Where they do excel, however, is at transferring large amounts of money. While it may not make much sense for customer deposits, for operators offering large jackpots having a bank check option may sometimes be a necessity.
Online wallets
Online wallets are similar to bank cards for the user when making purchases, however, they can also store funds and offer several other benefits, such as buyer protection, enhanced information security, and quick transfer times. Because of these benefits, many widely-used online wallets may have higher fees and a more involved and challenging integration process. Depending on the provider and their standards and requirements, it may be much harder to embed an online wallet in a gambling website, although some payment gateways predominantly work with the iGaming industry and will likely offer an easier setup process. Generally, popular casino payment providers offering online wallets will be worth integrating into your online gambling website.
Cryptocurrency
Changing gears to a different currency type, crypto is an excellent option for online casinos. It offers a number of benefits, such as its completely decentralized ecosystem that features minute fees, no delays and no limits. They do have a couple of downsides, however, the biggest one of which is their low utilization. Because of their volatility, many people think investing in cryptocurrencies is enough of a gamble, so they shy away from using them as regular currencies. Moreover, many payment solution providers for online casinos can only facilitate the transfer of crypto, meaning that players need to set up a wallet and purchase their coins themselves off the casino’s website, which is not as streamlined of an experience as the majority of the other options we discussed.
Vouchers
Voucher-based casino payment gateways can allow players to utilize cash to play at their favorite gambling establishments. Options for these types of casino payment providers will vary greatly in terms of both availability and quality depending on which jurisdictions an operator may want to work in, as unlike most other methods, casino payment providers offering voucher-based payments will require a physical presence in the markets they want to operate in. This makes them much less common than completely online casino payment methods, however, they can still be a great addition to an operator’s catalog of payment gateways.
Local options
Lastly, let’s explore local options. These usually come in the form of online wallets or voucher-based payment methods that are tailored to a specific region. They feature high levels of localization in terms of language and currency options and are generally only available in a select few jurisdictions. Most of the time these types of casino payment providers are only useful for companies that focus on a few markets and feature a high degree of localization, just like the payment gateways themselves. However, international operators may want to consider a local provider if a sizable portion of their player base can benefit from it.
FAQ
Why is it challenging to find payment solution providers for online casinos?
The main reason why quite a few payment solutions providers are hesitant to work with gambling firms is because of the industry’s risks. This includes risks of various financial crimes, such as money laundering, along with risks associated with operating in a wide variety of jurisdictions around the world with a wide collection of currency options. Many payment solution providers also turn down iGaming operators because of their vague end–user terms and conditions.
How casinos can enhance their appeal to payment providers?
Fortunately, it is quite simple for gambling firms to enhance their appeal to casino payment providers by implementing robust AML and CTF measures and acquiring certifications and licenses from reputable industry organizations. Having high–quality identity verification solutions will be quite an important step in implementing AML and CTF measures, however, operators will need to ensure that they can carry out their checks in a timely manner to give players a smooth experience and avoid negatively impacting conversion rates.
Additionally, identity checks can reduce an operator’s conversion rates because of privacy concerns as well. However, ensuring the safety of players’ data can help instill confidence in players and increase an online gambling website’s conversion rates. Moreover, working with payment providers that have a sizable presence in the gambling industry is another great option to avoid such issues.
What are the most secure gambling payment providers?
Some of the most secure gambling payment providers include PayPal, Neteller, Skrill, and Trustly. These providers are known for their robust security measures, encryption protocols, and fraud prevention mechanisms, making them popular choices for online gambling transactions.
How do casino payment services work?
Casino payment providers serve mainly as aggregators of real-money transactions while ensuring the secure transfer of funds between the casino platform’s users and its merchant account. While the primary concern in casino transactions is the safety of funds, the top payment provider also supports improved client maintenance, KYC processes, ID verification, as well as services to prevent fraudulent actions.
Conclusion
To summarize, selecting the best casino payment providers is quite an important task for iGaming operators, which is not made easier by the vast number of payment gateways available on the market and the list of things a gambling business would need to consider before integrating the services of one. Despite that, it will be worthwhile to integrate several popular, easy-to-use, and widely available casino payment providers to remove any barriers to entry that may make players think twice before making a deposit.
