Paysafecard Casinos

For people in many jurisdictions, getting their money into and out of an online casino account is not difficult. They can link their debit card to their account and move money about freely. Other jurisdictions (although a dwindling number) allow the use of credit cards. If that doesn’t suit, then there are plenty of eWallet solutions such as PayPal, Skrill or Neteller or even a cryptocurrency like Bitcoin.

For some people, all of those payment methods come with difficulty, mainly because they all require creating an account at the financial services provider offering the service. Some people can’t open such accounts, or they do not want to. For them, there is an ideal solution – the eVoucher scheme known as Paysafecard.

A Brief History of Paysafecard

Paysafecard (sometimes stylised as paysafecard) is a unique payments system that allows for vouchers to be purchased in the real world that they can be spent elsewhere.

The company came into being in Austria in 2000. The idea from the people behind the company was for a pre-paid card that could be ‘loaded’ and ‘topped-up’ with real cash or money from connected financial accounts. The card could then be used online to make internet-based purchases. In effect, it was a credit card in reverse in that you could only spend the current balance on the card and once that balance reached zero, you could not spend any more.

Eventually, this idea ‘mutated’ – a Paysafecard would not be a physical card like the kind of credit and debit cards found in wallets and purses all over the world. A Paysafecard would be a virtual card that existed as a concept. Someone’s Paysafecard’s current value would be maintained online without the need for physical plastic cards to be created.

This idea proved extremely successful, especially for people without internet banking facilities and Paysafecard when from strength to strength. In 2013 Paysafecard was purchased by eWallet company Skrill. In 2014 Skrill bought Paysafecard’s main competitor Ukash and merged their services into Paysafecard.

In 2015 Skrill’s main competitor Optimal Payments (Neteller owners) bought Skrill and therefore, the Paysafecard brand. Later Optimal Payments rebranded itself as Paysafe Group.

Paysafecard – Pros and Cons

Pros

• No need to have a ‘Paysafecard’ account
• Accepted by a vast number of online casinos
• Can be purchased in the real world

Cons

• Not as popular as eWallets or credit/debits cards
• Withdrawals via Paysafecard are rarely available.

How to use Paysafecard at Online Casinos

The most common way of using Paysafecard at an online casino is to ‘purchase’ a Paysafecard at a real-world retailer. This can be done using cash or a debit or credit card. You can purchase a card with several values from $/€/£10 to $/€/£100. Once you hand over your cash, you will be given a receipt containing a 16-digit number. This is in effect the number of your Paysafecard even though physically the card does not exist.

To move some or all of the money on your Paysafecard to an online casino. Head to the cashier section and select ‘Paysafecard’ as your deposit method. Choose the amount you want to deposit (which of course cannot be any higher than the current balance on your Paysafecard) and the card’s 16-digit code. Once you have okayed everything, the money should be in your online casino account instantly.

You cannot buy Paysafecards online, but you can use the Paysafecard site to find the nearest retailer to you where Paysafecards are available. You can also use the site to check the balance of any Paysafecard you may currently own.

Paysafecards cannot be topped up. If you buy a $20 Paysafecard and spend $10 of its value, you cannot add another $10 to top the card back up to $20. This causes a major problem with Paysafecards at online casinos – they cannot be used for withdrawals. If you want to make a withdrawal from an online casino where you’ve deposited using a Paysafecard, then you will need to select an alternative withdrawal method.

Conclusion

A Paysafecard is a very convenient method of transferring money into an online casino account. The main issue with it as a payment method is that it cannot be used for withdrawals. If you are fortunate enough to win money via your online casino play, you will need to find another way of getting that money out of your online casino account.

Because you use real cash to purchase a Paysafecard, the use of this eVoucher system is more transparent than using debit cards, credit cards and eWallets. You can really maintain an idea of just how much you are spending rather than just seeing numbers transfer from one account to another. This encourages responsible gambling, so if you struggle with keeping a close eye on the money you spend via gambling, using a Paysafecard could be the perfect solution for you!