Payment Options For American Players
admin | March 22, 2010Everyone likes online poker – it might not be as social as playing with people that are in the same room as you, but it provides poker fans across the globe the opportunity to play against players of all skill levels, thus helping players reach their full potential as far as their playing skills are concerned.
Unfortunately, if you live in the US, you’re probably having some troubles depositing money into an online poker account with your credit card. Fortunately, there are solutions to this.
The problem rises from some vague phrasing in legislation that requires financial companies to prevent transactions that are associated with online gambling. However, the law doesn’t specify which games are not allowed, as a game that involves skill is not exactly gambling, and as all poker players know, there is a lot more than luck involved in poker.
The result is that credit card companies and banks choose to “play it safe”, and block all transactions that could be linked to online gambling.
While the transactions themselves may be open to interpretation, playing is by no means illegal, so players can opt to use other methods of transferring money into an online poker account.
One of the available options is to use an eCheck. These are just like a regular check, but are meant for online shopping. While this may seem perfect, the time it takes to process is far from it. It could take up to two weeks, so many players don’t really like using eChecks.
The other option is to use the services of an online payment services, similar to Paypal. These service require minutes to process and they add an extra layer of privacy. Furthermore, online poker sites prefer these services over regular credit, and they show their love by giving out additional bonuses for these transactions. Not all online poker sites reward this, but you can check with your place.
These services include the likes of Neteller, Click2Pay, eWalletXpress, UseMyWallet, and in some casinos, PayPal.