Online casino gambling in the USA has been a popular activity for over a decade. It started off very slow but enjoyed a large popularity boost during the big online poker boom. In the last couple years the number of Americans who play at online casinos for real money has been growing but not as fast as it used to. Things have slowed down slightly because many Americans have a hard time funding their accounts due to online casino laws for the US. Many people are also put off because of the slow payout times at some online casinos. This is not always the case however. There are still quite a few US casinos that Americans can deposit at and withdraw from both easily and quickly.
I won’t be suggesting one casino or another. If you want to find a list of casinos that accept Americans you can visit: http://www.unitedstatesgamblingonline.com/legal/casinos.html. I will be providing some tips for Americans who want to gamble at an online casino in 2013.
US Casino Deposit Options
Depositing at online casinos can be difficult for Americans. Many methods that worked great a few years ago – like Mastercard – are not viable today. Visa still works well at most casinos though. If for some reason your Visa debit or credit card does not work you can use the following trick as a work-around. Most major retailers sell pre-paid Visa cards. Not every single kind will work at an online casino but most do. Two other deposit methods that seem to be very popular at casinos, poker rooms and sports book are Moneygram and Western Union. These money transfer services can be done on the Internet. These options have two major short-comings. The first is that the casino may take a day to pick up the funds and credit your account. The second is that the fees associated with these methods can be pretty high. If you are depositing a lot it won’t that big of a deal. Recreational gamblers who only want to deposit $50-$100 may want to try another method because there is a minimum fee of $10-$15.
Some online casinos will cover the deposit fees on a certain number of deposits per month or on deposits of $200-$300 and up.
US Casino Payout Options
Americans will also have trouble withdrawing money from their accounts at some casinos. The major options include checks, Moneygram, Western Union and bank wires. Check casino payouts are generally the slowest for Americans. Some casinos have a 1-2 month backlog on this type of payout. The two money transfer services are much, much faster but there are the fees to consider. Bank wires can take anywhere from a week to a month depending on the casino. At some casinos there are fees associated with every kind of withdrawal but you can usually get one or two free per month. My best tip would be to plan your cashout requests carefully. Try to avoid excess fees on both deposits and payouts. This can save you a lot of money and turn a losing month into a winning month.