Paypal is one of the most popular and frequently used online wallets available, and so it is only natural for people to be interested in using it to fund their poker accounts.
Not all major poker rooms accept Paypal as a payment option, however, there are a handful of smaller poker rooms that do:
A few PayPal poker sites will actually offer players special alternative deposit bonuses if they happen to use PayPal, but not many. These bonuses often consist of a 10-15% bonus on top of whatever you deposit when you choose PayPal. Like we’ve said, though, these bonuses tend to be few and far between.
Best Paypal online poker rooms.
| Room | Review | Rating | Network | Traffic | Bonus | Paypal |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 888 Poker | A+ | - | High | $400 | ||
| Sky Poker | B | - | Okay | - | ||
| Paddy Power | C+ | iPoker | High | $2,000 | ||
| Ladbrokes | D | Microgaming | Okay | £675 | ||
| Betfair Poker | E | OnGame | Okay | $2,000 |
The major poker rooms such as PokerStars, Full Tilt and Party Poker do not accept Paypal as a deposit method (or withdrawal option). With these rooms you are going to have to use another popular deposit option such as Neteller, Moneybookers or use your credit card.
Unfortunately, the poker rooms that allow players to make deposits and withdrawals to their poker accounts using Paypal are in the minority.
Why don't more poker rooms accept Paypal?
All of these rooms are European based, which is the reason why Paypal is an accepted payment method. Paypal is more comfortable with allowing poker players to fund their European poker accounts rather than the poker rooms outside of Europe.
This is due to the deposit/withdrawal problems for US players since the UIGEA (Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act) of 2006, therefore Paypal will obviously want to play it safe and avoid any problems that can arise from allowing players to deposit to rooms outside of Europe.
What are these Paypal poker rooms like?
All of these Paypal poker rooms are also well-established sportsbooks and have branched out into the poker industry over the last few years. They each offer a high level of customer service and have good user-friendly software. The rooms also offer multi-currency tables, where you can choose between playing poker in Dollars, Euros, or Pounds depending on your personal preference.
However, the main problem is that Paypal-accepting poker sites often suffer from lower player volume. They do not have lower player traffic because they accept Paypal, it's just that the biggest rooms do not accept it as a payment method right now.
The majority of poker rooms accepting Paypal generally have lower player traffic.
The traffic isn't so low that it causes a problem. It's just something to be aware of. It isn't worth putting the effort in to find an alternative deposit method to play at a higher-traffic room if Paypal is the best option for you.
Using other online wallets instead of Paypal.
Although it is incredibly handy to be able to fund your poker account via Paypal, it may be in your best interest to take the time to open another online wallet such as Neteller or Moneybookers. These work exactly like Paypal, but are more widely used amongst poker websites (and gambling sites in general). These will allow you to deposit at the bigger online rooms with greater player traffic.
I'd recommend getting one of these online wallets if you often move your bankroll around from one room to another. Deposits and withdrawals using an online wallet like Moneybookers are close to instant, whereas withdrawing to your bank account can take a few days. So if you're a regular player and sometimes want to move your money between rooms, use an online wallet to speed things up.
However, if you are still determined to use everyone’s favourite online wallet, it's good to know that there are a few rooms out there that are open to your Paypal poker efforts.
Go back to the Texas Hold'em rooms.
PayPal has re-entered the USA gambling market as an option in Nevada, New Jersey and Delaware. They are doing a trial run with wsop.com, but are planning to add more legal poker sites in the near future. Again, as of now, this is only for sites in New Jersey, Nevada and Delaware and does not apply to the many poker sites that are based off shore.
The US market is frequently changing, however, and we plan to keep this page updated for when more sites begin to offer PayPal as an option.
Return of the King?
PayPal WAS the leading provider of online gambling deposits in the US from early 2000 to late 2002 but eventually left the market prior to US legislators passing the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act in 2006. It was a relatively short run for PayPal, but their role as a payment provider to poker, casino and sports betting sites was so dominant during that time, most felt their exit from online gambling spelled doom for the entire US gambling industry.
This, however, wasn’t the case, soon after Neteller stepped in and kept things going. Unfortunately Neteller itself would leave the market in 2007 but those of us who were around in the PayPal days didn’t panic too much when Neteller left the US. Whenever online poker loses one payment processor another seems to move in and take over. The main methods now include credit cards, wire transfers and Bitcoin, which is becoming more and more popular for offshore sites.
PayPal Still Deals in Gambling Transactions
When PayPal left the US market in the early 2000s in didn’t completely abandon the online gambling market. Instead PayPal focused on more progressive countries (when it comes to online gambling) such as the United Kingdom, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Italy, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, Australia and more.
For much of the world PayPal remains a premier option for depositing on online poker sites and the company has been expanding into the segment more aggressively in recent years as online gambling becomes more commonplace.
Because PayPal was one of the original payment processors it was extra careful when it came to online gambling laws in the USA and that’s part of the reason the market remains bereft of the company outside of the regulated markets in NV, DE and NJ.
How PayPal Works, and What is PayPal?
If you’re not familiar with PayPal, they are the largest money transfer service in the world. PayPal makes it possible for anyone and everyone to receive money online, be it from friends, relatives, business contacts, or website visitors. Not only can they receive money online, but they can also accept credit card, or eCheck payments.
PayPal clients can store these funds, spend the funds at merchants accepting PayPal, transfer them to others with PayPal accounts, or cash the funds out via ACH bank transfer or paper check. In fact, in the US it is also possible to get a PayPal debit card that you can use to take money out of your PayPal account at an ATM, or because it has a MasterCard symbol, you can also spend your PayPal funds anywhere MasterCard is accepted. Today thousands of merchants accept PayPal including Godaddy and Moniker for domain registrations, United and Southwest for flight tickets, Tiger Direct for computers and electronics, and we’re mentioning just a few of the tens of thousands of merchants accepting PayPal in order to show how mainstream PayPal has become. PayPal is the payment processor of choice for the majority of users on famed online commerce site eBay.
PayPal Ownership and Successes
PayPal was so useful for online transactions that eBay decided to purchase the service in 2002. PayPal was originally the result of a merger between old internet companies X.com and Confinity.
After eBay acquired PayPal in 2002, ownership decided to pull PayPal out of the online gambling market because they weren’t sure how the laws regarding online gambling in the USA were going to shake out.
Even though it didn’t benefit from online gambling in the USA, PayPal rose to new heights under eBay ownership and now operates in 190 countries, has 152 million active accounts, and operates in 30+ different currencies with local offices in 13 different countries. They company does billions of dollars in business every single year.
PayPal’s Return to US Poker
Because PayPal is an online giant in commerce you might expect that the company isn’t in any rush to return to the online gaming space but that would be short sighted.
PayPal is actually experiencing stiff competition from payment processors like Cash.app by Square and even cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin so it’s important for the company to maximize value wherever it can find it.
PayPal is also a big player when it comes to online gambling in the rest of the world so it goes without saying that the company is hoping to move back into the US market. PayPal has even experimented with an online payment system in China where the internet is even more heavily regulated than the USA.
Us Poker Sites
There’s a decent chance that PayPal will make a widespread push back into USA online poker in the next few years and may even help push a few states towards legalizing and regulating the game.
New Us Poker Sites
The situation regarding online poker in the USA is always changing, however, and we suggest that you keep checking our US poker law page to get the latest updates.