All about the legal situation and the best legal providers
For a long time, PayPal online casinos were very popular – and they still are. However, as of June 16, 2019, it was no longer possible to make deposits to online casinos using PayPal. This applied to both deposits and withdrawals. But what was the reason for this? After all, PayPal offers its customers numerous consumer benefits in terms of speed of financial transactions, as well as security and flexibility.
Despite the fact that PayPal is a reputable payment service provider, it has become subject to politics. The reason for this was a plan to take action against illegal online casinos.
Of course, it wasn’t the casino providers themselves that kicked PayPal out as a payment method. Rather, it was a policy that, under the keyword “Payment Blocking,” ensured that online casinos could no longer offer and make deposits using PayPal.
The reasons for this decision lay in the legal situation in the gambling market. The end of PayPal in online casinos was legally binding, but by no means final, as will be explained in the course of this article. However, despite the ban, it was still possible to pay at online casinos using PayPal.
Who or what is PayPal?
PayPal is probably the world’s best-known online financial service provider, which allows its customers to make payments digitally. All that is needed for this is a personal and free account with PayPal, whose headquarters have always been in San José, California.
Until its spin-off in mid-2015, PayPal was originally a subsidiary of the auction platform eBay. Since then, PayPal has developed into the number one online financial services provider – all over the world. Currently, around 200 million private individuals are said to use PayPal regularly to make deposits online.
However, how and where payments can be made with PayPal on the Internet does not depend solely on online stores, service providers or online casinos. Because in order to be allowed to offer payments via PayPals, companies have to undergo a standardized and strict test procedure. Only after successful testing and legitimation as a reputable company is it allowed to officially call itself a store or PayPal online casino.
That’s how quickly your own PayPal account is set up. More videos about how PayPal works on the official youtube channel.
What advantages does PayPal offer its customers?
Those who use PayPal to transfer money have a lot of advantages on their side. The most important point is that the payment service is completely free of charge for private customers. If, for example, money is transferred to a PayPal online casino or winnings are transferred from the online casino to the PayPal account and from there again to the checking account, all these money transfer services do not cost any fees.
But there are of course many other advantages, which are found in particular in the not insignificant points of flexibility and security. In particular, the fact that PayPal is also available as an app and is offered by numerous online companies, service providers and of course gambling providers, makes PayPal practically an unrestricted payment method.
To ensure that your personal data and credit is always protected, PayPal uses secure encryption techniques and has impeccable data protection provisions integrated into its T&Cs, so that you as a customer are secured at all times. All advantages summarized again:
- Free returns: If there are ever any problems with PayPal after a purchase, you can use the free returns service. PayPal refunds the costs of up to 25 euros when the return offer is activated.
- Data protection: The latest encryption techniques are used by PayPal and guarantee that strangers do not gain access or insight into personal financial information. In addition, the payment service provider guarantees that customer data is never sold to third parties.
- User-friendliness: With its own PayPal app, the Californian company offers a kind of online banking application of its own. After logging in, customers are given access to their personal PayPal account. Here, personal information can be changed, money can be sent and requested, or a look at the history of personal financial transactions can be taken.
- Short-term credits without costs: Those who have already completed some payments with PayPal can enjoy the benefit of not having to meet their payment obligations until two weeks after receipt of the invoice. PayPal thus goes into advance, pays the incoming invoice and then debits the money from the personal checking account for 14 days – and all this at no extra cost.
What is PayPal buyer protection?
A special position among the PayPal advantages takes without doubt the PayPal buyer protection. As a consumer or private customer, it is possible to activate PayPal Buyer Protection at no extra cost if you suspect that you have become a victim of fraud.
Example:
A product was ordered in an online store and the product was paid via PayPal. Despite contacting the seller several times, the goods never arrived. This raises the suspicion of fraud.
Especially if it is about lower costs, a legal countermeasure would not be worthwhile. In such a case, the PayPal Buyer Protection can be contacted. In the period of 180 days after the order, you have time to activate the buyer protection. Then PayPal will take care of the case and check the payment and the company that did not provide the paid service within 20 days.
If PayPal proves you right, the payment service provider is liable for your loss and will refund the full amount at no extra cost, as well as any additional costs, such as shipping.
Important to know: For payments to PayPal online casinos, the buyer protection was unfortunately canceled in November 2016! Whether PayPal will reactivate its buyer protection in the future for deposits related to gambling cannot be said at this time.
Online casinos with PayPal: the current legal situation
The best PayPal online casinos were, of course, very popular for the reasons mentioned above, with the fast deposit being particularly decisive. Practically without delay, payments to the online casino could be converted in this way and thus, for example, dust off a bonus in the short term and increase the personal balance by a nice sum and free spins. Thus, the players could start playing at the slot machines or in the live casino without delay.
Until recently, this was done away with. Since June 16, 2019, the Department of the Interior has been working hard to make it harder for illegal online casinos to offer their gambling services online. And how has this been done? Unfortunately, by banning PayPal for deposits and withdrawals related to online casino gambling.
Unfortunately, the politicians apparently did not take into account that even legal providers would no longer be able to use PayPal.
Thus, they were sending a signal and assumed that the pressure on other payment service providers to reorganize their business processes in connection with illegal gambling would now also increase, if it had not already been done.
Reasons for the PayPal ban in online casinos.
According to politically responsible forces, the purpose of banning the use of PayPal as a payment method for slot machines, live blackjack, etc. is to make it harder to attract solvent customers for online casinos operating illegally.
However, one wonders why PayPal is the target of this politically ordered measure. After all, PayPal is not the only payment service provider that cooperates with online casinos.
Moreover, it is known that any cooperation between PayPal and another company is checked in detail, so that only in rare exceptional cases it was possible to use PayPal to make commission-free payments to online casinos, which do not even have the right to offer gambling over the Internet due to the lack of a license.
Furthermore, the ban also shows the impotence of politics when it comes to cracking down on illegal gambling. Ultimately, the ban hit the payment service provider, not the online casino itself. It is the foreign providers that are not allowed to operate in our country, but nevertheless offer online gambling.
The legislation of the European Union prevails over the national legislation. This principle was confirmed by the European Court of Justice, the highest court of the EU, in a ruling issued in Luxembourg on July 18, 2007, in a dispute over company subsidies in Italy. According to the ruling, national courts cannot ignore EU law and must ignore domestic laws and regulations if necessary.
However, this is problematic from a completely different point of view. Because usually international online casinos have a European license, which, according to general EU law, gives them the right to offer gambling in different countries. However, because national legislation contradicts this, legal difficulties arise again and again, to the chagrin of many actually legally operating gambling companies and their customers.
The PayPal exception to the online casino ban still existed!
So is it now impossible to play at PayPal online casinos at all? No! Because in fact, the statutory provision banning PayPal only applied to pure online casinos, not to sports betting providers.
And since many online betting providers now also have games such as poker, live roulette or slots in their portfolio and also offer PayPal as a payment method, online casino PayPal has existed all along, at least indirectly, but not all of them can still be used nowadays.
Unfortunately, PayPal itself also decided in January 2019 to withdraw completely from the gambling market, at least as far as online casinos are concerned. But casinos with PayPal still exist. To make the review easier, the most prominent providers are listed below, including information on whether PayPal deposit is still possible there.
Name | Provider | PayPal payment possible? |
Bet3000 | Sports betting provider | Yes |
ComeOn! | Sports betting provider | Yes |
Sportingbet | Sports betting provider | Yes |
Bet-at-home | Sports betting provider | Yes |
EUCasino | Online Casino | No |
PlayMillion | Online Casino | No |
Sunmaker | Online Casino | No |
Betfair | Sports betting provider | Yes |
PlayOJO | Online Casino | No |
Unibet | Sports betting provider | Yes |
Betsafe | Sports betting provider | Yes |
Ladbrokes | Sports betting provider | Yes |
Pokerstars | Poker provider | No |
sunnyplayer | Online Casino | No |
BetVictor | Sports betting provider | Yes |
LeoVegas | Online Casino | No |
QueenVegas | Online Casino | No |
VegasWinner | Online Casino | No |
Betway | Sports betting provider | Yes |
LuckyNiki | Online Casino | No |
Rizk | Online Casino | No |
Vera&John | Online Casino | No |
BoomBang | Online Casino | No |
MegaCasino | Online Casino | No |
Roxy Palace | Online Casino | No |
Viks | Online Casino | No |
Bwin | Sports betting provider | Yes |
Slotilda | Online Casino | No |
Wunderino | Online Casino | No |
CherryCasino | Online Casino | No |
MobileBet | Sports betting provider | Yes |
SlotsMagic | Online Casino | No |
Table: It is still possible to pay with PayPal at these online casinos.
Your advantages in online casinos with PayPal
In a PayPal online casino that is one of the best, you will find an excellent bonus offer with many free spins games galore. This includes slots and jackpots slots as well as a live casino area and classic games at digital tables. Especially the big names in the industry offer their games: Microgaming, NetEnt, Playtech, Yggdrasil and Evolution Gaming are to be mentioned here. Of course, only such a casino that has a valid license comes into question for a serious test. The best casinos with PayPal can look back on years of experience with players. These are happy about the already mentioned advantages of PayPal such as depositing or withdrawing without fees.
PayPal: Alternatives to the payment service provider
Because the current ban on online casino payments only applied to PayPal (which reduced the choice of casinos with PayPal), it is still quite possible to make payments to online casinos nowadays – and it can be just as quick and easy as with PayPal. Because even if the choice of online casinos with pure PayPal is currently small, you can find very good alternatives here and there.
Because, of course, PayPal was and is not the only online payment service provider capable of extremely fast and reliable digital deposits. Among the first alternatives to PayPal are: Skrill, Neteller and SOFORT! So that you do not have to resort to the credit card, the most important PayPal alternatives are briefly presented.
Skrill: make payments quickly and anonymously
Some of you may have already heard of Skrill. Perhaps you have already been able to deposit or even withdraw money this way, because in many PayPal online casinos you can find Skrill among the payment options. If you take a closer look, both payment methods offer immense advantages.
Because when a deposit is made via Skrill, no entries appear on the personal account statements, from which it is evident that a payment was made to an online casino. It is therefore not possible to see whether the player has tried his luck at slot machines. This can play a role especially when a bank scrutinizes one’s creditworthiness, for example when applying for a loan.
Because usually banks evaluate regular deposits and withdrawals to and from an online casino negatively. But if you deposit with PayPal or Skrill, you don’t have to worry about that. Because the player has an online account on which credit must be available, only neutral debits from Skrill appear on the account statements, which do not allow any conclusion about which recipient a payment really had in the end.
- First alternative to PayPal for casino players
- Deposit and booking implemented in a few seconds
- Easy management via online account
- Payee not identifiable on bank statements
SOFORT: easy & instant transfers from your bank account
The second good alternative to PayPal is certainly SOFORT. And with this payment service provider, the name says it all. With SOFORT, just like with the e-wallets PayPal and Skrill, transfers land in real time with the payee. So where exactly is the difference to the e-wallet providers?
With SOFORT there is no online account. Instead, payments are made through this financial service provider by granting this provider access to personal online banking. This may not be appealing for security reasons, but SOFORT is considered a reputable payment method and uses personal data exclusively to process an authorized payment.
In the end, SOFORT even offers an advantage that even PayPal and Skrill cannot show. For a payout of winnings in the online casino it usually takes only one business day until the payment is credited to the personal bank account. This simply has to do with the fact that with SOFORT no online account is interposed, as is the case with Skrill or PayPal.
- Deposits in real time
- Payments via online banking, no e-wallet
- Payouts credited within one business day
The gambling market: Is the PayPal ban on online casinos permanent?
It should be said at the outset that the ban on PayPal for online casino payments is probably not permanent. This assessment is based on the fact that there is likely to be a long-term change and liberalization of the gambling market within the next 1-2 years. And now there are reliable casinos with the PayPal payment method.
In 2018 a new regulation of the gambling market began. Since the current treaty lost its validity on June 30, 2021 legal chaos ensued.
After the final liberalization of the gambling market there should no longer be any reason to further ban PayPal as a payment service for online casinos. In other words: It will be a matter of time before a large number of legal online casinos with PayPal finally reappear.