PayPal Resumes Online Gambling Payment Transactions

August 05, 2009 | News Category: Casino Banking

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PayPal, the well-known online payment processing service, has once again begun to allow online casinos and online bingo rooms to process payments using their services. In the past, online casino patrons were able to use this easy and reliable payment processing service on gaming sites.

The introduction of the UIGEA (Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act) was part of the reason that PayPal to adopt a policy against processing online gambling transactions. Online gambling transactions are also considered to be high risk financial transactions for a financial institution such as PayPal.

PayPal has not begun accepting online gambling transactions worldwide at this time. They have begun slowly with the European market. PayPal in Europe have been operating as a Luxembourg-based bank since July of 2007.

There are those in the online gambling industry who think that the current move by PayPal to accept online gambling payments in Europe, and especially in the United Kingdom gambling market, are simply readying themselves for the time when the UIGEA is repealed, and they can once again return their online gambling transaction operations to the United States.

At this time in the United States, as a result of the UIGEA, online casino banking transactions are considered illegal. Should the UIGEA be repealed, and online gambling become legal, this will not be an issue anymore, and PayPal will be able to return to the US.

Barney Frank's online gambling bill has generated much interest and is being accepted and pushed by key politicians on both sides of the political spectrum. Although there have been some delays with the online gambling bills that Frank has authored, it is certainly looking like a positive outcome will be reached for the online gambling community.

PayPal is not the only large online company that has been affected by the US online gambling ban. Google, the well-known search engine, makes revenue from small advertisements related to the topic that has been searched on their site. After ending up in court, and receiving fines from the US government, Google agreed to comply with the restrictions the US imposed upon them, and stopped online gambling advertisements from being used in Google Ads in the US.

Since October 2002, PayPal in the US has formed a part EBay, the largest online auction site, as a wholly owned subsidiary. EBay have their corporate headquarters in San Jose, California, with operations in many other countries around the world.