Let’s take a look at how to use PayPal in iGaming industry
The rise and rise of PayPal in the iGaming industry. Source: shutterstock.com
It may be no coincidence that two of the big business success stories of our time have grown up in unison. From not existing at all-around thirty years ago, today both PayPal and the online gaming industry are in very good health. The former has an estimated 305 million users worldwide while the latter is estimated to be worth around $50 billion a year, and rising.
Naturally, both have the internet to thank not just for their success, but their very existence – but it’s only relatively recently that they’ve come together.
A brief history of PayPal
A brief history of PayPal. Source: pexels.com
The history of PayPal is quite a complex one. It was launched originally in 1998 under the brand name Confinity whose core business was intended to be providing security programs for hand-held devices. Early ventures in the field failed so the focus was then changed to creating a digital wallet.
This time, success started to come and in March 2000 Confinity merged with a business called X.com which had been founded by Elon Musk – an early sign of his ambition and visionary skills. He correctly foresaw that online money transfer was going to be big business and in 2001 the service was named PayPal, going public a year later.
Another online business that was just starting out, eBay, was looking around for ways that it could help its buyers and sellers make and receive payments and bought PayPal in 2002 for $1.5 billion.
This became a real turning point for the business as it brought it to the attention of the public for the first time and really started to establish the brand.
By 2010 it had over 100 million users globally and was dealing in 25 different currencies. In 2014, eBay announced that it was to be made an independent company, a status it enjoys today.
One only has to look at the figures to see just how large it has become. In 2019 its earnings were reported to be nearly $2.6 billion from a turnover of $17.7 billion with the company being worth almost $127.6 billion in December of the year.
Linking up with iGaming
All the while that PayPal had been growing in popularity and profitability, the iGaming sector had too. With more and more online casinos being launched every year player numbers were also steadily increasing.
A number of factors lay behind the success of online casinos. Perhaps the most important of these was just how simple it was to play on them, certainly when compared with going to an actual casino. And, as time went on, it became easier and easier, especially after the arrival of mobile gaming.
The casinos themselves have also worked hard to provide new games to play, introduce innovations like the “live casino” and offer an ever-increasing number of ways to play.
But, for quite a while, there was no coming together of PayPal and the online casino sector as they seemed a little wary of linking up. On PayPal’s part, they wanted to be sure that the online casino sector was well-regulated and would not damage their reputation. On the part of the online casinos, they already offered several ways to pay including bank transfers, credit and debit cards, and other e-wallets like Skrill and Neteller.
But, to offer players more choice and partly in reaction to a new ruling on using credit cards introduced in April 2020 an increasing number of online casinos now welcome PayPal and it’s proving to be very popular with players.
There are several reasons why:
- Security
PayPal uses the highest levels of security and password protection. So players can be confident that all their dealings will be safe from attack by online fraudsters and that payments will be safely handled.
- Convenience
Once they have set up a PayPal account, making payments in this way is far more convenient than having to type in a card number and security details each time. Generally, it’s just a case of logging into the account and making the payment.
- Speed of payment
iGaming players want to be able to access their money quickly and easily. So, for example, if they’re playing real money poker with PayPal they can be confident that they will be able to get their hands on their winnings far more quickly than it might take by other methods.
- Low fees
Compared with a number of other e-wallets, the fees charged by PayPal are comparatively low, especially when the speed and convenience of the service is taken into account.
- The flexibility of a PayPal account
When a player has a positive balance in their PayPal account there are a number of things they can do with it, from transferring the money to their own bank or even using it to pay directly for other goods and services online.
It all adds up to a very convincing argument for using PayPal – and there are soon to be even more reasons.
Crypto PayPal’s on its way
Crypto PayPal’s on its way. Source: pexels.com
In October 2020, PayPal announced that from 2021 account holders would also be able to use cryptocurrencies on the service. Not only is this likely to attract many new customers to the service, but it could also help to increase the acceptance of Bitcoin and its rival currencies generally.
Whether this also means that casinos will also follow suit remains to be seen, but we can be sure of one thing: the relationship between them and PayPal is set to become even stronger.
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