In 1996 we saw an explosion of online casinos that swept through the whole world. The united states saw a huge increase in both online casinos and players 68.183.125.130. This huge increase of online players worried the land-based casino owners and they lobbied to have it stopped or at least slowed down. They knew if this pace continued they would see more of a decrease in profits. So they lobbied Congress hard and in 2006 the us passed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (or UIGEA).
The UIGEA act prohibited all the banks and payment processors from processing any kind of transactions related to online gambling. This created a problem for players in loading and withdrawing money from their online accounts. While the companies continued to operate they had to use payment processors that could circumvent such restrictions. Despite all these laws related to online gambling, some online casinos continued to accept players from the US.
On the other hand, many of the bigger online brands left the us market, the choices for players became extremely limited. Many said it was very hard to find a good online casino. A lot of reviews sites started to pop up that directed players to the sites they so desperately looked for. Some of these sites were better than others, but they served the need that was created. Shortly after the market had started to stabilize and players were playing online again Black Friday hit the online gaming world.
Many casinos had found a way around the deposit and withdrawal problems and the online gambling world was growing once again. Many started to feel invincible to this new law. The government was not really enforcing it and it seemed like they had no intentions of doing so. This was certainly a false sense of security for both the players and online casinos. April 15, 2011, will go down in history as the day the online gambling industry was punished and punished hard. It was the start of a new era. The us Department of Justice charged the principals of the three largest poker sites Poker Stars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker with bank fraud, illegal gambling offenses, and laundering billions of dollars in illegal gambling proceeds. The DOJ seized their domain names and their funds. Suddenly many US players were not just left with nowhere to play, but no way to recover their funds.
Black Friday forced many more gambling brands to leave the us. Everyone was once again scrambling to find new places to play, worried if they would ever get their money back, and wondering if anybody was going to stay in the us market. A major blow was struck to online gambling and many wondered if it would survive. Again the review sites played a major role in finding places for players to play. Now the market was very limited and it was a struggle to find online sites. Once again the market slowly started to stabilize and things settled down a bit. The market was damaged but survived. Personal bank accounts to fund online casino gambling are illegal in most of the United states. PayPal offers a viable alternative as a way to send and receive money while participating in online gambling.
PayPal is technically not a bank. However, some federal agencies assert that PayPal is indeed a banking institution, because of the way it manages financial transactions and retains funds for lengthy periods. PayPal objects to this characterization, saying that, because it does not charge interest or account fees and lacks a banking charter, the government should not designate it as a bank.
PayPal is a secure and convenient method to use for all kinds of online financial transactions. However, if you use it to fund online gambling, do not have transactions made directly to PayPal, since the IRS is capable of linking payments from your bank account to your PayPal account and finally to your account with an online casino. Further, as an American-owned company, PayPal will not authorize payments to online gambling casinos.
Online gambling sites, realizing that many individuals use PayPal as a way to perform online financial transactions, offer to assist by transferring money from your PayPal account to an approved Ewallet for online gambling purposes. However, many companies may charge as much as 40 percent commission for providing this service. These transfer companies might also have questionable reputations for reliability in ensuring that your money arrives at its intended destination. Avoid these types of money transfer companies, and stick to established and legitimate financial transaction services. If you use PayPal to fund your online gambling account, you should use your PayPal account to purchase a pre-paid credit card and use that to add to your casino account. This way, you remain distanced from the transaction, and neither the IRS nor the casino knows where the money originated. Remember, pre-paid credit cards do not assess fees for transferring or loading money onto the card, although some may charge an activation fee of about $10 and a minimal monthly fee. However, these charges are worth paying if you are considering seriously investing in online gambling.
The most successful and established online gaming casinos offer PayPal as a payment option in most countries outside North america. Some people create a foreign bank account and use a credit card based on that account as their PayPal link account. With this method, however, you will need to be familiar with someone living overseas who can set up an account in your name.
Because PayPal is somewhat complicated to use for funding your online gambling account, you might choose a wire transfer service like MoneyGram, which is simpler and prevents anyone from knowing how you are transferring money to your casino account. Online gambling is much more fun if you don’t have to worry about involving yourself in something illegal.
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