Beginner's Guide to
Online Gambling
Making a Deposit
So you’re ready to make your first real money bet? There are
usually a number of methods by which you can send the casino money.
Firstly, there’s your credit card: Visa and Mastercard are commonly
accepted by nearly every online casino. However, many of you in North
America may find that your credit card purchase will be rejected.
This is not because the casino doesn’t want your money; it’s
because of a regulation at credit card companies, which forces the merchant
(the casino) to identify the transaction as 7995: the purchase of tokens
for the purpose of Internet Gambling. Most banks in the US are afraid
to accept these high-risk transactions and automatically reject the
purchase.
If this is the case, you have two alternative methods of using your
credit card—by opening up an account at either PayPal or FirePay.
You can tie your credit card to these accounts and the purchase will
be identified as a pseudo-cash transaction instead of Internet Gambling
transaction. These two methods are now the most common ways by which
North American residents deposit money into online casinos—and
in some cases casinos will offer an additional bonus if you make a deposit
by one of these methods.
Many casinos also offer incentives for making a purchase by Western
Union—you can use your credit card to send funds by Western Union
online, or you can always go to your nearest Western Union agent and
hand over cash. Some casinos will even allow you to deposit money by
other methods such as ACH (which is basically an electronic check),
or by wire transfer, Neteller or Layeway.