Warning: Do not read this article while operating heavy machinery.

There is a new way to transfer funds for online gambling in Europe. Paypal, the American company based in San Jose, California, has decided to allow their service to be used for the transfer of funds from online gambling. The e-commerce fund-transfer business was founded in 2000 and has been a subsidiary of eBay since 2002. Paypal expanded their business by beginning operations in Europe in 2007. Though initially they did not allow their service to be used for transferring winnings from online casino games. That has now changed.

Transferring funds from online gambling is a risky business, due to the tendency of various governments to freeze or seize the assets, claiming they were ill-gotten gains. Paypal, however, is willing to accept the risk, the reward of which is charging a fee to the businesses transferring the funds, which in a rich gambling market can be quite profitable. With the possibility of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) being overturned in the United States, Paypal may be positioning themselves for a spot in the new potential American online gambling market as well. Online gamblers in the United States are currently excluded from the service, though.

Having Paypal as an option makes fund transfers easier and safer for online gamblers, since they do not need to give out bank account information or credit card numbers. However, for anyone thinking that having Paypal to go through means your funds are less likely to be frozen, that may not be the case. Even if the government doesn’t freeze the funds, which is still a risk, Paypal has been criticized in the past for freezing the accounts of e-commerce stores who experience rapid growth. Paypal states that they only freeze accounts as a safety measure.

Tags: funds transfer, online casinos, online gambling, Paypal, UIGEA, Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act

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