Withdrawal of PayPal from many online casinos – but why?

Bad news for fans of gambling on the Internet: The most popular payment service among players in online casinos, PayPal, is becoming increasingly rare as a deposit or withdrawal option.

The popular payment service PayPal is withdrawing from more and more online casinos. The 888 Holdings and the industry giant GVC Holdings are already affected. So there is, besides 888casino, for example in the PartyCasino already no more PayPal option. Other big players in the industry, such as the online casino PokerStars, are now also missing PayPal as a payment service provider. However, it is unclear what the exact reasons are for PayPal’s withdrawal.

PayPal is increasingly withdrawing from PayPal casinos in Germany, although according to paypalcasinodeutschland.com there are still a number of providers with corresponding options. The company, founded in 1998 and currently employing 18,700 people, is already missing at the following large online casinos:

Provider Details

888casino was founded in 1997 and is part of 888 Holdings
PartyCasino Also founded in 1997, belongs to PartyGaming, headquartered in Gibraltar
PokerStars was released in 2001 and is owned by The Stars Group Inc.

Players from all over the world regret the withdrawal. With the help of PayPal, it was possible to make transactions in real time, either to the player’s account or back to their PayPal account. The payment method did not require the transfer of sensitive bank details to the online casino, was free of charge and had just established itself as the number one payment option with many providers.

Withdrawal due to the unclear legal situation

A withdrawal as comprehensive as PayPal’s raises many questions. While PayPal itself does not give any official reasons for the withdrawal, there are two main reasons within the industry:

legal regulation on online casinos in Germany
Overuse of buyer protection without basis

One reason is the unclear legal situation of online casinos in Germany according to ndr.de. The State Treaty on Gaming states that the organisation of public games of chance on the Internet is prohibited, but many of the most popular providers come from abroad and, for example, have licences from Gibraltar. In the EU, there is also the freedom to provide services, so that we can speak of a legal grey area, which had a direct negative impact on payments processed via PayPal. On the other hand, there was probably also an unjustified overuse of PayPal buyer protection in the event of a loss of bets made, which probably caused the company an enormous audit effort. However, recently, money spent on gambling was explicitly excluded from buyer protection due to the changed terms and conditions.

Alternatives to PayPal in online casinos thin on the ground

The withdrawal of PayPal from the online casino business is particularly tragic in view of the fact that the number of actively used PayPal accounts has recently risen steadily worldwide. While 205 million active accounts were recorded in the first quarter of 2017, this figure had already risen to 229 million in the fourth quarter of the same year. By the beginning of 2018, statistics show that the figure had already reached 237 million accounts, rising to 267 million in the fourth quarter of 2018. Apart from this, alternative payment methods that combine all the benefits of PayPal are rare in online casinos:

Payment method: Advantages, Disadvantages

Immediate bank transfer Real-time transaction Transfer of sensitive bank data to third-party service providers
Skrill, Neteller Secure e-Wallet, fast transactions account required, more complicated payment methods, fees
Bank transfer No additional account setup Very slow

The payment method that best combines the convenience and speed of PayPal is instant transfer. In this case, the player logs into his online banking account via the online casino and carries out the transaction from there.

However, the two methods are not comparing one to one either, so it is clear: The withdrawal of PayPal in the online casino sector is tragic, especially as many people are now gambling online and trying to increase their assets far from the classic ways. But there remains a small consolation: At PokerStars, for example, payouts are still made to the player’s PayPal account if the player has used this payment method in the past, but deposited by instant bank transfer.