News

Tuesday, 04 August 2009 05:11

Paypal, one of the world's largest online electronic wallets looks set for a return to the online gambling arena, with some UK based online bingo websites already having the facility available to their members. This gives players another option for making payments and receiving winnings.

It may come as a surprise to many to learn that PayPal was actually the original means of making payments to and drawing winnings from the first online casinos to hit the scene in the early 1990s. They provided the very first electronic wallet facilities for the online gambling industry. Paypal left the market when they were bought by the online auction site, eBay.

With Paypal out of the way, the floodgates were thrown open for new online wallets to fill the void created by their exit. This saw the rise of Neteller to become one of the industry's top online electronic wallets. Despite their prosecution by the US Justice Department, Neteller remains a preferred money transfer method in countries that still allow legal online gambling. Now Paypal is re-entering this arena and can already be found on major UK online bingo sites such as Littlewoods Bingo and Ladbrokes Bingo.

The reasons for their comeback are obviously financially related. There is a huge, multi-million dollar market to be serviced and many people know and trust the Paypal brand name. This will give them the edge over other online wallets for more than any other reason.

The thinking behind this move has taken into account the still huge number of people who are uncomfortable about allowing their credit and debit card details be revealed to online companies, especially those in the online gambling sector. This is thanks largely to the existence of some unregulated and dishonest online casinos, that potential customers feel are only out to harvest their personal details for illegal purposes.

Most people however are far more trusting of a familiar name when it comes to giving out their personal and financial details and Paypal has certainly earned the trust of millions of customers over the years.

Presently, there are still many online bingo sites not offering Paypal to their members, as some see the integration process as troublesome, although as time goes by this situation will change. More customers will prefer to play at sites that use this well trusted payment service.