There was a time when finding a bookmaker who accepted Paypal as a payment method was like finding the Holy Grail, but luckily for us in the modern day, it is now a much more mainstream option.
It’s still not available everywhere though, and as one of the world’s favourite payment methods that’s a little strange, but we will explore why this might be a little later in the article.
Where Paypal is available, it is often the ewallet of choice over all others, some bookies use it exclusively in terms of ewallets, with only debit cards and bank transfers as alternative options, so it’s clearly a very popular payment method.
Even though Paypal has been around since the year 2000, there are still people who are only just beginning to understand the benefits of using it, and ewallets in general.
For that reason, we will go through the process of using Paypal to deposit and withdraw from your online bookmaker, as well as exploring some of the pros and cons and any safety concerns people might have.
Bookmakers That Accept PayPal
*Please note – the following bookmakers all accept PayPal as a deposit method, but some sign up offers may restrict what payment methods can be used to claim. Check the individual offers terms for details.
What is Paypal and How Does it Work for Betting?
Paypal is an ewallet or digital wallet, like the wallet in your pocket but for spending online. It’s a middleman payment service that allows you to spend money at thousands of websites without giving your bank details out to lots of individual companies.
There are a number of digital wallet products that are similar, but Paypal is the most well known and most widely trusted, as it has decades worth of history and a very strong record for security and usability.
The idea is that instead of having to enter your bank details with every website you want to spend money at, you just give that information to Paypal instead.
This way, your details are safer because they are only being stored by one single company, rather than by many, and all your online payments go through the same place. It also saves time and hassle at the checkout, because once you select Paypal as the payment method, you only need to enter your Paypal password and they take care of the rest.
Paypal is actually linked to your bank account, and they can debit your account in the same way that spending on your debit card would, so although Paypal is essentially a middle man in the transaction, it’s practically frictionless and you would barely know it was there.
If the idea of Paypal taking money from your bank account is a bit too much for you, the alternative is to fund your Paypal account manually, then change your settings so that you can only spend money via Paypal if that money is already in your Paypal account.
In this way, people can use Paypal as a sort of bank account for their spare cash where they put their spending money each month, and then when it is gone it’s gone.
Bettors could do this for betting funds too, but however you choose to use it, Paypal is almost exactly the same as using your regular debit card for betting transactions, except it is more flexible and keeps your bank details in one place.
It’s also nice and easy to track which bookie sites you are using to bet with the most, and where you are having the best or worst returns, since you can see all transactions in the same place and they won’t be mixed up with your everyday spends and household bills etc.
On top of that, withdrawals via ewallet are the fastest in the industry, so should you win anything, there will be very little time between hitting the withdraw button and receiving your money.
There are even user controls to allow you to disable gambling transactions if this is a tool you might want to use.
How to Use Paypal at Your Online Bookie
First and foremost, you are going to need a Paypal account.
It’s very easy to sign up, they have around 450 million active accounts globally so it can’t be that intimidating a process.
Go to the website, hit the ‘Sign Up’ button, and you will be given the following option:
Obviously, you are going to choose a personal account, and click ‘Next’.
Next they will ask you to supply an email address, click a box to prove you are not a bot, and then ask for a phone number:
You will be sent a one time use 6 digit code to your mobile to prove you own the phone you are registering with (they might use this if there is a security issue), and then they will ask you for some personal information such as your name, date of birth, and address:
Once you get through this bit you will create a password, then you have officially created your account and you can start using it.
Managing Money
At this point, Paypal is not linked to your bank account, so you can’t really do much until you add a bank card or fund the account manually.
Again, it’s just a case of inputting information into boxes, as you can see below:
Once this is set up, whether you link a card or a bank account, you can change your payment preferences as described earlier and see your balance by clicking on the ‘Wallet’ tab, and all previous transactions by clicking on the ‘Activity’ tab:
You can send and request money too, although this isn’t really relevant for betting sites.
That said, if you want to fund your Paypal account you just need to hit the ‘Transfer Money’ button, and you will be given the option to ‘Add Money to Your Balance’.
This will transfer money from your bank to your Paypal account, where it will sit waiting until you are ready to use it.
There is a lot more you can do with Paypal than we need to go into here, because for the purpose of betting online, depositing and withdrawing is all handled from the bookmaker’s website.
Using Paypal as a Betting Payment Method
The first step is to establish whether or not Paypal is even an option at the bookie you want to bet with.
The easiest way to find out is to go to the banking area and see if it is available there, however, if you haven’t signed up to the bookmaker yet you won’t be able to do this.
In these circumstances, you will need to look for the bookie’s banking information either in their terms and conditions, or sometimes on a separate payment information page found at the bottom of the homepage.
You might even get lucky and have picked a bookmaker that lists the logos of all the payment types they accept along the bottom of the site, in which case no further digging will be required.
Assuming Paypal is an option and you already have an account with the bookmaker, the rest in incredibly simple.
When you go to deposit you will see it as a deposit method; it will look slightly different depending on your bookie of choice, but won’t be too dissimilar to this:
Select it, and you will be asked to select your deposit amount like normal.
Make sure you are trying to deposit at least the minimum amount (it’s often a bit higher for Paypal, more on this later), double check you re happy with the amount, then click the ‘Deposit’ button.
If you have never used Paypal to deposit before, you will see a pop up window from Paypal who will ask you to confirm the payment.
Just check again to make sure you haven’t accidentally added an extra zero, and if you are happy to process click the ‘Confirm Purchase’ button and your money will be in your betting account when you go back to the page.
Paypal will probably also ask if you want to enable one-click Paypal deposits – you can see the check box option for that on the bookie’s banking page in the image above too.
You don’t have to do this, but if you do, the pop up confirmation box won’t appear again, as Paypal will trust requests made from your bookmaker account in the future, so it’s less faffy after the first time.
You won’t be able to withdraw using Paypal unless you have first deposited using the method, but assuming you have, requesting a withdrawal is the same process.
Paypal FAQ
Rather than blather on for ages, here are some common questions and answers related to Paypal and online bookmakers.
Can I Use Paypal in Conjunction with Bookie Offers?
Possibly not.
The terms and conditions are always different from one bookmaker to another, and even from one offer to another at the same bookmaker, so you will have to check every time.
The information should be very easy to find though, it’s often right there on the offer graphic itself.
If there are payment methods that are excluded from offers though, you can bet that Paypal will be one of them.
Why is the Minimum Deposit/Withdrawal at Bookmakers Higher for Paypal?
Although Paypal is a very convenient and very popular payment method, it is also one of the most expensive for businesses to use.
The likes of VISA and Mastercard are so widely and frequently used that they can charge a smaller fee and still make loads of money, but with Paypal it’s a bit pricier.
For this reason, online bookies don’t want punter depositing and withdrawing piddly amounts every 30 seconds as it just wouldn’t be worth their while in the long run, so they usually double the minimum deposit to make the transaction viable and balance the risk associated with it (you might win after all).
Are There Fees to Use Paypal?
Paypal themselves won’t charge you, but they do charge the vendor, which in this case is the bookmaker.
This is one reason why Paypal might be excluded from certain offers and why minimum deposits are higher (see questions above); Paypal costs the bookmaker more money to use than the other payment methods, so they have to limit its use in certain situations.
That’s not to see the bookie won’t charge you as well though.
These days, deposit and withdrawal fees are largely a thing of the past, but there are some bookmakers who still charge a small fee for using certain payment methods, and Paypal could be one of them.
The odd bookie still charges for all transactions regardless of payment method. Why people still bet with them is anybody’s guess.
Again, this is a question there just isn’t a single answer to, so you will have to check the terms at the bookmaker you want to use. It’s not hard though, any fees should be displayed at the time of deposit/withdrawal.
Is Paypal Safe and Secure?
If you trust online banking than you can trust Paypal.
They use the same high level encryption and security methods, and employ the best people in those fields to maintain their platform.
If you don’t really trust online banking either, then you are going to struggle with online betting full stop.
There were 22.3 billion transactions through Paypal in 2022, if that makes you feel any better.
The biggest risk to security is through scammers to be honest, and that’s down to you. If this is something you are worried about, then the golden rule is to never click links in emails. If you get an email from ‘Paypal’ asking you to do something, close the email, and go to the website directly and take it from there; that way you know you are logging into the real website and not some dodgy lookalike site a scammer has set up.