PayPal Returning to the US Gambling and Poker Sites

PayPal was the leading provider of online gambling deposits in the US from early 2000 to late 2002. This was a short run, but their role as a payment provider to poker, casino and sports betting sites was so dominant during that time, most felt their exit from online gambling spelled doom for the US gambling industry. This, however, wasn’t the case, as soon after Neteller stepped in and kept things going until 2007. Those of us who were around in the PayPal days didn’t panic too much when Neteller left the US, knowing it wouldn’t be long before other banking methods would surface.

PayPal Still Deals in Gambling Transactions
 
As to why we’re including info about PayPal on this page. We’ll, of course, as we already suggested, PayPal is no longer servicing the US gambling market. This however hasn’t stopped them from being quite aggressive in service gambling transactions in other countries such as the United Kingdom, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Italy, Ireland, Spain, Portugal or Austria where PayPal remains one of the top methods for deposit and withdrawal.
 
Many gambling experts are predicting that HR2267 will eventually be passed as law and we’ll soon have poker sites that are licensed and regulated by the US government. When this does come about, it seems likely PayPal would make a return to the market and once again be the dominant force for US deposits to online gambling sites.

How PayPal Works, and What is PayPal?
 
If you’re not familiar with PayPal, they are the largest money transfer service in the world. PayPal makes it possible for anyone and everyone to receive money online, be it from friends, relatives, business contacts, or website visitors. Not only can they receive money online, but they can also accept credit card, or echeck payments. PayPal clients can store these funds, spend the funds at merchants accepting PayPal, transfer them to others with PayPal accounts, or cash the funds out via ACH bank transfer or paper check. In fact, in the US it is also possible to get a PayPal debit card that you can use to take money out of your PayPal account at an ATM, or because it has a MasterCard symbol, you can also spend your PayPal funds anywhere MasterCard is accepted. Today thousands of merchants accept PayPal including Godaddy and Moniker for domain registrations, United and Southwest for flight tickets, Tiger Direct for computers and electronics, and we’re mentioning just a few of the tens of thousands of merchants accepting PayPal in order to show how mainstream PayPal has become. PayPal is also the leading way to pay for (and receive cash for) items bough (and sold) at eBay.com.
 
PayPal Ownership and Successes

Speaking of eBay.com, PayPal, which was established as the result of a March 2000 merger between email payment processors X.com (founded 1999) and Confinity (founded 1998), became a wholly owned subsidiary of eBay on October 3, 2002. While they left online gambling around that same time, under eBay ownership PayPal has risen to new heights. PayPal now operates in 190 countries, has 223 million clients (73 million of them active), and operates in 19 different currencies with local offices in 13 different countries. In 2008 their revenue exceed $60 billion (USD).

PayPal’s Return to US Poker

While you might expect based on PayPal’s success outside of gambling that they are unlikely to return to US gambling, we would in fact bank on the opposite. As we already mentioned, PayPal is aggressive in signing up gambling merchants who service areas where gambling is legal. Also PayPal is heavily focused on expansion and growth opportunities. In fact, they even offer an online payment system in China now where the internet is heavily regulated. If and when HR2267 passes, or another form of US licensed poker is introduced, our money is on PayPal taking over as the leading deposit and withdrawal method at US poker sites.

To learn more about HR2267 and the potential for licensed poker to soon come to the USA read our page about US poker law.