With about 159 million PayPal users and with tens of millions of those customers being from the US, PayPal has received approval from gaming regulators within Nevada. PayPal is also in the course of establishing itself in New Jersey as well as in Delaware in matters pertaining to online gambling. These two states are actually about to give approval to this payment service that is based in the US. And when that happens, you can only imagine what a boost it will be for the online gambling sector!

How smooth is the online payment process?

Well, payment processing has been one disturbing issue particularly for gamblers doing their gaming in New Jersey. Even the otherwise popular MasterCard has its approval rate at just 73%. It is even worse for the VISA whose approval rate is a mere 44%. For a long time, many financial institutions have given gambling ventures a wide berth. And things have not changed much even after the introduction and implementation of fresh gaming codes – not even with lenient state laws.

How big an issue is the incidence of declined online payments?

Having a credible credit card rejected is one thing that puts the fear of loss into the gambler. One gets to wonder if the gaming site – whether for poker or online gambling – is really legitimate or credible. And so, the entry of a payment service that is free of the usual hitches is a breath of fresh air in the field of online gambling. In fact, the huge number of New Jersey gamblers who have been abandoning online poker or such other games is likely to begin falling.

Any sites that have swallowed the PayPal bait?

Yes, of course! In New Jersey itself, you have got WSOP online; Caesars; and even Harrah’s; all wishing to embrace payments via PayPal. In fact, if you single out Caesars Online, you will realize it is already using PayPal in its gaming transactions within Delaware. And all the gaming sites mentioned wish to embrace PayPal because of the potential they see in increasing player traffic.

Any site standing out as missing PayPal transactions…?

Of course, some sites are distinctly missing PayPal as a transacting partner. One example is the 888 Holding. There is, however, nothing to show that the site has reason to reject PayPal. In fact, it is thought that the reason 888 Holding has not hastened to take advantage of PayPal is the weight of its start-up costs as it establishes itself within Nevada. In short, you can find sites that are not using PayPal even when the hindrance has nothing to do with US Poker laws or anything negative regarding the payment system.

Have state laws always favoured the gambler?

Of course not! Payments from State online poker and other such games were at some point only received clandestinely. There was, for instance, the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (UIGEA) that prohibited acceptance of online gambling payments. Even PayPal could not have anything to do with gambling at the time. Unfortunately, by the time the state laws regarding gambling were relaxed, many of the convenient payment services, mainly public traded, had disappeared from the US.

What more do you know about PayPal?

Well, apart from being helpful in transactions involving online gambling, there is the fact that PayPal has been a subsidiary of the world’s renowned auction site, eBay. Actually PayPal’s exponential growth during the period between 2002 and 2015 when it was part of eBay came about by eBay influencing its vendors as well as customers to make payments via PayPal. Right now, of course, PayPal is autonomous and no longer a subsidiary of the online auction site.