Luke’s recommended casino depositing methods

Choosing your deposit method

You’ll normally be invited to select your preferred method for depositing when you open your account along with other details such as name and address and/or when you’re actually about to make your first deposit. But you can at any stage change what your preferred method for depositing is, or add one or more new methods. There’s normally a minimum amount you must deposit each time, generally 5 to 10 Euros/GBP. What varies considerably are the maximum amounts you can deposit. You’ll have to check out the terms of your Casino to see what the maximum amount is, though that might also depend on your individual circumstances as a customer.

What methods are available?

Lots, just like when you’re ordering something from the likes of Amazon or another huge online supplier. As a general rule, the bigger and more established the Casino is, with the greatest number of customers, the greater the choice for you in terms of deposit methods available. Of course, you won’t necessarily have endless deposit methods available yourself to pick and choose which of the 10 or 15 that particular Casino has available, will suit you best. But here are the main ones along with some tips on how to use them and a look at the pros and cons of each one.

Mastercard

When it’s been around since 1966 and is accepted in over 210 countries, you can see why this is a popular and trusted method of paying for stuff. The Mastercard comes in four types: credit card, debit card, prepaid cards and gift cards and Casinos will generally accept any of those four.

After opting to use Mastercard, you’ll be asked to enter the name associated with your account, card number and expiry date. Then it’s just a case of choosing the amount.

VISA

VISA has been around even longer than Mastercard- 1958 – and can easily be acquired from just about any bank in the world. A few years ago it was probably the number 1 method for Casino players to deposit money but it’s probably been overtaken by e-wallets and pre-paid cards now. Nonetheless, just about any Casino worth its salt will accept it a valid method for you to deposit your cash.

Registering your VISA card will be the same process as the one listed above for Mastercard with the one difference being that you’ll also have to provide the 3-digit CVC security code at the back of any VISA card, for security reasons.

Neteller/Paypal/Skrill

I’m lumping the three of these together like a hamburger fan would mention McDonald’s, Burger King and Wimpy’s in the same breath because…they all work in a very similar way.

If you like shopping online, it’s very likely that you’ll already have one of the three. When we say that they’re e-wallets, we’re already halfway to explaining what they do and how they work. Go to the homepage of one of those three and click on ‘open account’, ‘open free account’ or ‘sign up’. You’ll have to enter some details such as your name, address, date of birth and so on and will have to provide an e-mail address, which very often not only acts as the username but will be needed to verify your account. You’ll also be asked to provide your preferred currency.

Your e-wallet will always be connected to a particular card and does what it says on the tin. You can have money paid into your e-wallet account and use it to pay for stuff, like making a Casino deposit. Because it’s linked to a card you often won’t have to do any checks so it’s quick to open an account.

When you choose to use one of these e-wallets you’ll actually be transferred to their site where you’ll need to login before choosing the amount you want to deposit.

Entropay

Another increasingly popular form of paying for things online, be it buying that new Smartphone for you to play your favourite games at some of the best Casinos I’ve recommended here at Playwise or…depositing money into your account.

The way it works is that an Entropay account is a prepaid VISA account. Your first step is to acquire an Entropay account and load it up with the desired amount of cash using a VISA card of your choice. The card you use to deposit funds into it is then the card that’s associated with your account. If you qualify for it, you can then also acquire a plastic Mastercard which has additional benefits, like being able to use it to withdraw cash from an ATM machine.

Entropay has been around for 15 years now and is a good payment solution for those who like to have stand-alone accounts that have nothing to do with their regular day-to-day finances.

Paysafecard

Not dissimilar to Entropay in the sense that you fund it using another card but a little different in the sense that you actually end up with the money on the card itself rather than in an account that’s managed via the card? Clear as mud?

Whenever you want to make a deposit using your Paysafecard, you’ll be issued with a unique 16-digit code which you’ll then need to enter prior to actually executing the transaction.

Also, rather like with Entropay, you’ll only be able to spend what’s on the card so there won’t be any unpleasant surprises at the end of the month when realizing you’ve spent more than you thought.

Bank transfer/ Bank wire

The idea of directly using your actual bank account to purchase something may sounds as outdated as CDs, speed dating and the Spice Girls but back in the day it was certainly a simpler and smoother way of transferring money than doing it with the ‘approval’ of a staff member at your bank.

And with one notable exception (which we’ll obviously come to) there’s nothing actually wrong with it.

You’ll almost certainly have an online back account already. Most of us these days check our balance online and keep tabs on money going in and out rather than doing all this admin at an ATM, which really annoys those waiting behind you in the queue! If you don’t already have online banking, get it as you’ll find it makes your life a lot easier.

To make a deposit to a casino you’ll first need to find out the casino’s account name, account number and sort code. You’ll also need to find out what your gambling account number is. That’s so that when your deposit goes through, they’ll know to credit your account rather than someone else’s thanks to the reference you’ve provided them with!

Once you’ve got this information, select bank transfer/bank wire as your deposit method and just follow the instructions as to what you have to; it’s mostly just providing a series of details. Very often, the bank itself will send you a text message or e-mail with a unique 4 or 5 digit code that you’ll need to enter during the process. This is a security measure to make sure that the person with access to the phone number/e mail associated with the account is the same one as that trying to make the transfer.

During the process you can also choose when you want the transfer to be made: either as soon as possible or in some cases, you may prefer to instruct the bank that you only want it to go through in a few days’ time in case maybe you’re waiting to receive money from someone else in the meanwhile. Once you’ve done all this, the last thing you need to do is select the amount.

Well, those are the main ones and the ones I’ve highlighted because they tick the boxes of being available at most casinos, being fast and reliable and keeping your money safe.