Many people enjoy a round or two of online gambling, playing their favorite games. With the advent of the Internet, the online gambling industry has exploded and is now a billion-dollar industry. The best part is that online gambling is progressing at an ever-faster rate – much faster than land-based casinos.
That being said, one of the most important parts about gambling online is to be found in making a casino deposit. To do this, you will typically use one of the following payment methods:
- Credit or debit card,
- Electronic wallet,
- Bank wire transfer,
- And others.
However, one of the newest ways in which you can make an online casino deposit is through the use of a prepaid or a gift card for gambling. To this end, we have made a review for you that you can peruse to learn more about prepaid and gift cards for gambling.
Advantages of Using a Prepaid Card for Gambling
There are several different benefits that you will experience if you opt for using a prepaid card for gambling. First off, using a prepaid card is highly convenient and easy to do. All you need to do is purchase a prepaid card from a store, and you can then use it for gambling online.
As you may notice, you won’t even risk losing any personal data in the process. There’s nothing to tie you with the prepaid card, as you won’t need to give any sensitive information in the process of acquiring one, such as name, address, etc.
So, the Visa gift card online casino won’t even get the chance to get any financially sensitive information about you in the first place. This is not to say that you aren’t safe when using legit casinos; it is just an additional layer of safety that you’ll be glad to have.
And as mentioned before, all you need to do to use a prepaid card is purchase it. Then, you will need to register an account at the casino and visit the cashier page. Once there, you can write the numbers of your prepaid card and then make a deposit. It’s as simple as that.
There is a variety of different prepaid card issuers around the world, too. These are some of the biggest brands in the world of finance and financial transactions too. Some of the most popular options in this regard are:
- Paysafecard,
- MasterCard,
- Visa prepaid card,
- EcoCard,
- Entropay,
- And many others.
Some of these brands are so strong and powerful that it makes it easy for you to find a prepaid card in almost any country around the world. This goes especially for brand powerhouses such as Visa.
But the best part about prepaid cards is that you can fund them with a fixed sum of money. This means that once you use up all of the money you’ve funded the card with, you won’t be able to make additional deposits with it unless you fund it again. This is very different from what credit cards offer, where you can reach a negative balance and go into debt.
We’re not saying this to rag on credit cards – there are hundreds of millions of people around the world who use them and with good purpose. However, problems may arise if you use a credit card to fund your casino account, as you can easily get carried away and overspend, falling into debt. Even iGaming authorities such as the United Kingdom Gambling Commission are on to this problem, and, recently, there have been some prohibitions for online casinos to accept credit cards as valid deposit methods.
That aside, with the use of prepaid cards, you won’t have this problem. In the worst-case scenario, your card could be physically stolen. This means that you’d lose the remaining sum of money that you have had on the card, as it would be impossible to get reimbursed for it as, if you remember, you don’t have to provide any personal information when purchasing a prepaid card. But still, if you’re careful, then you’d know not to top up your prepaid card with significant sums of money. This would be a lot safer approach in general.
There are also mobile applications that the top most popular gift card providers have created to assist you with mobile gambling. You can use them to your advantage for a seamless payment experience with the help of your gift cards deposits.
As you can see, there is a significant number of benefits that you can experience once you begin using a gift card to fund your iGaming experience. The vast majority of legit online casinos fully accept prepaid card usage, and this simplifies things even further for the players. Regardless of the brand of prepaid cards that you choose, you will still get a top-notch experience in funding your casino account.
Advantages of Using Gift Cards for Gambling
Gift cards aren’t very dissimilar to their prepaid card counterparts. The thing that makes gift cards unique is that you can purchase one such gift card and top it up with a certain amount of money and then give it to a friend of yours as a gift. Your friend will then be able to use the gift card for whatever purpose they want – including online gambling.
Noting that gift cards are getting more and more popular, online casinos have begun to accept gift card deposits in increasing numbers. So, it’s not at all difficult to find an online casino that accepts gift card deposits, especially if the gift card is of a powerful brand such as Visa.
That being said, there are two main types of gift cards that you can use for gambling online:
- Prepaid cards,
- Fixed value cards.
There are benefits and disadvantages of using either, so it’s best to do some research and think about your own needs and preferences. The prepaid gift cards, as the name suggests, can be topped up for however many times you’d like. However, the main disadvantage of using prepaid gift cards is that they have been known to incur some fees. And in time, if you continue to use them, then these fees may compound to a significant sum.
Fixed value cards, once again, as their name suggests, are with a fixed value. This means that you’ll only be able to top them up once and, after that, they lose their value. The fact that they are of fixed value is their main benefit and disadvantage at the same time. There are no significant fees that you will be subjected to as you won’t even be able to top up your card. But once you’ve used the sum of money that you have had on your fixed value gift card, then it means that it’s now worthless, and you can throw it away.
By the way, gift cards are designed to look like regular, run-of-the-mill credit cards. However, this does not mean that you can withdraw money from your gift cards if you put them in an ATM. There are card numbers on the card, true, but they are found on different parts of the gift card than on the credit card counterparts. So, there’s no way that an ATM could mistakenly accept a gift card and give you options to withdraw money.
Prepaid Cards, Gift Cards, and Casino Promotions
One of the best things about using prepaid and gift cards to fund your casino account is that there is usually no limitation when it comes to claiming the available casino bonuses and promotions. With that in mind, it becomes all the easier to begin gambling online when you know that you can get a variety of different gambling bonuses, such as:
- Welcome deposit match bonus,
- Free spins,
- Cashback,
- Loyalty rewards,
- And others.
Online casinos are very much known for their great generosity, especially towards new players. And there’s nothing to prevent you from your using your prepaid or gift card to make a deposit and claim the casino bonuses.
That being said, there are exceptions to this rule. Namely, some online casino operators only make certain deposit methods eligible when it comes to claiming bonus funds. And, in some cases, prepaid and gift cards are excluded from these promotions. In any case, it’s your best bet to check whether a particular online casino accepts gift cards and prepaid cards as viable deposit options – and if the use of these payment methods does not preclude getting the exciting bonuses featured by the casino.
And the best way to do this is to check the terms and conditions of the casino. Any casino worth its salt will feature the T&Cs in a visible location on the main page of the casino. It’s now up to the visitor to spare some time and effort in going through the terms and conditions to learn whether prepaid and gift card deposits are eligible to claim bonuses.
One of the greatest things about using gift cards is that not only they’re safe and secure to use, and not only will you protect your personal data and information – but they also work very quickly. Most modern deposit methods work fast, though, and gift cards are no exception to this. What this means is that you will be able to make instant deposits in the casino of your choice. The casino will immediately recognize this payment method, and it will be quick to respond and transfer the funds immediately to your account. And you will be able to start gambling in a second.
So, the fact that it’s very easy to find and purchase a gift card for a loved one and top it up with an appropriate sum of money makes it a sound choice if you want to give a gift that matters. This goes especially so if your friend and loved one loves to enjoy spending some time and gambling in an online casino.
Prepaid Cards, Gift Cards, and Casino Withdrawals
All is well when it comes to making a deposit with the help of a prepaid card or a gift card – as we’ve mentioned before, you can do so quickly and easily. However, what happens if you have indeed won some money, and you wish to make a withdrawal? Can you make a withdrawal with the help of these payment options?
Unfortunately, this is not possible. This is one of the main disadvantages of using prepaid and gift cards for online gambling, as they can only be used for the purpose of making a deposit. You can’t use this payment option to make a withdrawal.
You will have to use other payment options to make a withdrawal, such as regular credit and debit cards, electronic wallets, bank wire transfers, etc. Regardless, the lack of the money withdrawal function doesn’t mean that prepaid and gift cards don’t have their use. On the contrary – they are quite useful if you wish to make quick and safe deposits. But when it comes to casino withdrawals, you will have to use another method that has the withdrawal function.
Main Disadvantages of Prepaid and Gift Cards
For all the good that they can do for you if you want to gamble online, it’s important for you to realize that there are some disadvantages of using prepaid and gift cards for gambling online. We’ve already touched on some of these disadvantages in the previous sections of this review, but now we’ll talk a bit more in-depth about them.
First and foremost, it’s important to note that you can only use prepaid and gift cards for making a deposit in a casino – not for making a casino withdrawal. So, if you want to make a withdrawal, you will have to use another payment method such as a credit or debit card, e-wallet, etc.
Also, many consider this to be a benefit, but there are some that consider it a disadvantage, too – you can’t go into a negative balance with prepaid and gift cards. This is possible with credit cards, and there’s the risk of falling into debt if you use the feature carelessly.
So, there’s the benefit of protecting yourself from overspending – and the disadvantage of not being able to spend more than you have if you really want to play some more and don’t have enough money on your prepaid or gift card to do so. Namely, some people are fully aware that they may be going into a negative balance, but they still know how to control their spending, and they prefer that this option is available to them. Going into a negative balance is not possible with prepaid and gift cards.
Moreover, in some cases, if the prepaid or gift card is of a fixed value, it means that you won’t be able to top it up either. And in this case, it’s safe to say that once you’ve used the money that was available on the card, it means that you can now throw away the card as you won’t be able to make any additional use of it.
And the fact that you’re not connected to a bank account and that you don’t provide any personal data when it comes to buying and using a prepaid or a gift card means that you won’t be able to ask for reimbursement if your card gets stolen or compromised in any way.
And while the number of online casinos that accept prepaid and gift card deposits is vast, and it’s still growing, there are still some casinos that don’t accept these types of deposits. Moreover, it’s entirely another thing to consider whether the casinos that do accept these deposits make the casino bonuses available to the players that use these deposit methods.
Also, you will need to put some effort into tracking how much you have spent with your prepaid or gift card, especially if it’s of a fixed value. The simple reason why this is the case is that there’s no way to track online how much money you have left. So, you’ll have to rely on your memory or even write things down to make it easier to remember. And even though many casinos will offer bonuses to players that use prepaid and gift cards – there’s still a case to be made that these bonuses won’t be nearly as big as the bonuses that the players can claim by using other payment methods such as cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, for example.
The limits may be smaller than with the use of other payment methods, as well. This goes for the maximum sum of money that you can top up your prepaid or gift card with. Truth be told, these limits are set as such to help people not overextend and deposit significant sums of money on their prepaid and gift cards. But some people would prefer it if there were even bigger limits when it comes to topping up your prepaid and gift cards.
All in all, the prepaid and gift cards that you can use for the purpose of online gambling are not without their fair share of drawbacks and disadvantages. However, all in all, we surmise that the advantages are many more in numbers and much more potent than the disadvantages, so we still advise you to use prepaid and gift cards for online gambling whenever you feel that this is the appropriate thing to do.
In Conclusion
By now, you’ve learned all the most important information when it comes to using prepaid and gift cards for funding your online gambling experience. You know that there are several benefits of choosing this approach to funding your account, namely, you will maintain your safety and security at all times, your identity and personal data that may identify you will be completely protected, there is a vast number of online casinos that have begun to accept prepaid and gift cards as valid deposit methods, and you can still get nice bonuses if you use prepaid and gift cards as deposit options, and more.
However, you’re also aware that the use of prepaid and gift cards is not without its fair share of potential drawbacks and disadvantages. Namely, the limits aren’t the same as the ones that you would have access to if you were using other payment methods such as regular credit or debit cards and electronic wallets. Then, there may very well be some limitations regarding the casino bonuses, as well. And not every online casino operator is eager to accept prepaid and gift card deposits. There’s no negative balance either, which simplifies things and only enables you to spend as much as you have and not a penny more – but there are some gamblers that may consider this as a disadvantage.
All in all, you now know all the information you need to make a decision on whether to use a prepaid or gift card to make a deposit in an online casino. Still, we think that this is the perfect option to go for if you want to keep things simple and safe. Even more so, getting a gift card is the perfect gift to make to a loved one, regardless of where they will decide to use it eventually. And despite the fact that there are some disadvantages of using prepaid and gift cards – the number of advantages by far outweighs them.
The best part is that the development of prepaid and gift card technology is far from over. New uses and optimizations are introduced on a continual basis to help make the prepaid and gift card deposit options even more accessible to people. Who knows, perhaps prepaid and gift cards may become viable withdrawal options one day soon. Either way, we hope that you’ll have a fantastic time using your prepaid and gift cards for the purpose of gambling online. Have fun!
