prepaid services and Payment Option

Depositing to and e from online casinos has become in many cases a forbidden act in many countries. However, the online gaming industry has found alternative ways to cater their services to players all over the globe. The most successful alternatives in the deposit/payment plateau of today’s remote gaming industry are the prepaid online casino services.

What are they?

Prepaid online casino services are depositing and payout options accepted by online casinos in order to collect and allocate money into and from a player’s account. With the outlawing of some other online casino depositing/withdrawal methods in some parts of the world, and the fast-paced development of eCommerce offerings and activities, prepaid services have become very popular around the globe in the past few years. In fact, many statistical studies have estimated 30 million Americans subscribed to prepaid wireless options for the year 2007. It will not come as a surprise though, if that number is greatly surpassed by now and/or significantly represented by a sector corresponding to the millions of U.S. and Canadian citizens who engage in online gaming activities.

Background

Whether we like it or not, for the last couple of years the online gaming industry has been experiencing major opposition by some sectors of the U.S. and European economies and the governments. With the dramatic events of July-October 2006, concluding in a total ban of online gaming activities in the U.S., American citizens and residents are currently excluded from participating in most online gaming activities. Although the anti-gambling law is in many cases elusive, one thing is quite clear: American based banks, credit card companies, and eCash/eBanking companies offering eCash services cannot support payments oriented to or derived from gambling activities on the Internet.

Far form stopping online gaming activities within the U.S., the anti-gambling law has opened the way for prepaid online casino services to develop even farther all over the world with the finality of covering U.S. citizens/residents’ remote gambling deposit and withdrawal necessities. It is even a bit contradictory that most of the prepaid online casino services (in particular the most popular ones) are subsidiaries of credit card titans like Visa and a.

How do they work?

Prepaid online casino services work pretty much the same way r do. Basically, an account is opened with one of the prepaid services providers and managed via Internet according to the amount of money present in the bank checking account related to that particular prepaid card. Just as with debit cards, prepaid cards can only cover up to the amount of money available in the particular bank checking account funding it. Different from debit cards, prepaid services are not as restricted in those countries where Online Gambling is forbidden or discouraged, due to legal technical matters.

Reading the fine print

As much as with any other financial matter, it is always a good practice to completely read and understand the Terms and Conditions stated by the online casino operator of your choice pertaining depositing and cashing out via online casino prepaid services. The same rule of thumb applies to the Terms and Conditions included in the prepaid service provider’s contract. The reason for this is that sometimes a particular casino brand or prepaid card will suffice to deposit funds in an online casino, but not to withdraw them from there, or vice versa.

Article Submitted by:
Tera Lee, Gaming and Casino Journalist.

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