Paypal is extremely popular as an online payment option, but has only started to be used by online bookies and sports betting sites in the last few years. American gamblers can not bet with paypal though. It is offered as a deposit option by a lot of European betting sites now and many of those have low limits for Paypal deposits.
Paypal Bookies minimum deposits
PaddyPower
Bear in mind that you need to deposit at least €10 in order to get any bonus deal.
Betfair
The smallest amount needed to get any opening bonus is £10.00
BetVictor
32Red
Paypal and gambling deposits
Using Paypal for your online gambling transactions is perfectly fine by them, if you are from an allowed country, such as the U.K.
It is not available to players from America though. And if you have ever received money from someone you know or have done business with in America then you should be careful about using your Paypal account to fund online betting accounts. You just may run into trouble.
Paypal have a notoriously bad approach to customer service – basically they don’t like to provide it. It costs too much for them to treat their customers properly.
Once you don’t have any problems, well, you won’t have any problems. But should you run into any issues with this company, expect to be treated like a criminal. This company moved their European headquarters to Switzerland to avoid being regulated by European Union financial regulatory laws, which should tell you all you need to know.
Having said all that, if you are careful you should be able to use this service with no problems. It is a good idea to not keep very much of your money in your Paypal account at any time. Move it in, move it out again quickly.
There are far better options for online gamblers available for making online transactions. This service is more suitable to low stakes gamblers or casual bettors than to more serious individuals who may want to transact thousands of pounds to and from betting sites. For that kind of online gambler, Skrill and Neteller are probably a better fit.
Paypal gambling withdrawals
Any online bookmaker or betting site that allows you to deposit using your Paypal account will also allow you to withdraw to that account. I have not yet come across a site that will take deposits using Paypal but will not pay out to it.
Transactions are fairly quick, instant for deposits and can be same day for withdrawals.
The transaction fees are usually covered by the bookmaker – I say “usually”, as it is not always the case that you won’t be charged fees on both deposits and withdrawals. If your bookmaker charges fees on Paypal transactions you should consider moving to one that doesn’t charge. It is difficult enough to make a profit from sports betting without having to cover transaction fees too.
You can get a debit card on your Paypal account, which can be useful for making cash withdrawals from ATM machines, and for paying for your purchases offline, just like any other card.
There are two limitations on this card that you should be aware of; firstly, as it is a MasterCard issued debit card, you can not use the card to make deposits to online gambling sites. You must use your actual Paypal account for gambling deposits. That is a limitation imposed by MasterCard, and is the same for other payment providers that issue MasterCard branded debit cards.
The second limitation is the daily cash withdrawal limit on these cards. Currently the limit is $400 in U.S dollars, which is about half of the limit imposed on the Neteller card.
Given that you will have to pay a fee for every ATM withdrawal, you really want to get the most cash out that you can in one go.
The daily limit for purchases with your card is $3,000, which is fairly high.
As with all other online payment processors, try to make sure that your Paypal account is in your main currency, and try to deposit into your bookmaker accounts using that currency. Foreign exchange transactions can incur heavy fees that you don’t see as they are included in the exchange rate. Keeping your Paypal account and your betting accounts in the same currency can save you a considerable amount of money in the long run.
