Online casinos have become a staple of entertainment. These websites first started popping up in the 1990s. Back then not very many people attended online casinos. However, over the years, as technology improves, a lot of these websites are becoming a lot more prominent. There are quite a few reasons for their popularity, so, let us go over some of them.
The Reason Behind Online Casinos’ Popularity
One of the major reasons is convenience. At any point during the day you can visit a gambling website using any electronic device and select your favorite games. Obviously, this makes the games more accessible than having to travel to a casino. More importantly, you can access them at any time, whether you are home, on your lunch break, or on your commute to work.
Another reason behind the success of online casinos has to do with game selection. In the 90s, there weren’t that many games to choose from. Video poker or slots were the two main choices. However, nowadays, visiting an online casino leads you to a wide and ever-expanding library of casino games to choose from. Slots, video poker, live blackjack, roulette, and even some originals.
The last reason is also the main topic of this article; the payment methods. Online casinos in the 90s gave players one option, credit cards. Today, however, if you want to gamble online, you can pick from several options, all of which have their own pros and cons. Let us take a look at the most popular options, and discuss why they are so sought-after.
Credit/Debit Still Remains Popular
Credit and debit cards are still one of the most popular methods to make payments at online casinos. If credit cards are your choice of payment, there are really two options that you can go. One is to get your hands on a pre-paid credit card, which you will only use for gambling purposes. The advantage here is that you will not need to share much private information with the casino you are playing at, meaning your anonymity and security are all but ensured.
The downside is that pre-paid credit cards usually have a restriction on how much you can spend. This means that high-stake players will not be able to place very large bets. On the other hand, you can use your standard issue credit/debit card. In which case you will be able to place larger bets, but you also leave yourself vulnerable to cybercriminal attacks, which have gone up in recent years.
Cryptocurrency
In 2009, Satoshi Nakamoto released Bitcoin for the first time. Now, over ten years later, Bitcoin, and similar cryptocurrencies, have dominated the world of finance. A lot more people are learning the ropes and wisely investing in various crypto-products. The crypto boom has also led to many online casinos embracing crypto as a valid payment method.
Plenty of casinos and sportsbooks online now let gamblers use cryptocurrency to fund their accounts. The adoption of crypto has led to faster payout times, increased anonymity, and security. However, the downside is one that crypto investors should already be familiar with; volatility. Crypto is incredibly volatile, which makes gambling with it a little hard.
Still, many players opt to place crypto-based bets. Considering the vast array of crypto to choose from, we thought it would be useful to talk about the most popular crypto, that are accepted by most gambling websites. The following list are said cryptos:
- Bitcoin
- Ethereum
- Tether
- Litecoin
- Dogecoin
E-Wallets
Finally, in this final section we are discussing e-wallets. Digital wallets might just be the most popular payment method at online casinos. They combine the simplicity of credit cards and the security of cryptocurrency. However, they also have their own downsides.
The biggest downside to using e-wallets is that many of them sometimes charge pretty hefty fees. One of the fees that often is quite expensive is the exchange fee. For example, if you are gambling at an offshore casino, and want to convert dollars to Euros, the digital wallet will charge a fee for the exchange.
Still, e-wallets are quite popular, and will likely remain so in the future. From PayPal, to Neteller, and Skrill, there are quite a few options for fans of casinos to pick from.