Paypal now available at US online gambling sites

After a decade or so absence, PayPal has returned to US online gambling.

Talk of a Paypal return surfaced last year.  The talk turned to reality a few days ago when Caesars Interactive owed WSOP.com started accepting PayPal deposits from it’s US customers.

It’s a small re-entry. WSOP is available to fraction of US players, in line with Nevada’s intrastate online gambling regulations.

If you are 21+ and are physically located in the state of Nevada, then you are eligible to play in the exciting real money cash games and tournaments that we host at WSOP.com

It was also a very quiet re-entry. No press releases. No fanfare. Online casinos are still only legal in a handful of US states, and there is still a lot of political will aimed at stemming the tide of legalization.

PayPal’s softly-softly return is consistent with how they re-entered the European market after a complete global withdrawal following their acquisition by Ebay. Only the biggest brands; only for customers in i-gaming legal jurisdictions.

As a publicly listed US corporation with annual revenues over $8 billion their actions are closely scrutinized and must be defensible.

Gambling brands don’t get much bigger in the US than Caesars. Nevada is probably a safer launch pad than Delaware or New Jersey because it’s poker only, and conservative America has had many decades to come to terms with the fact that morally questionable things happen in Vegas.

Why now?

Unambiguously legal online casino and/or poker games was the green light that was needed. By late 2013 licensed casino in Delaware and New Jersey had already started accepting bets. Poker sites in Nevada followed soon afterward.

Another significant event was PayPal’s recent corporate independence from Ebay.

PayPal’s exit from online gambling came shortly after becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of Ebay in 2013. This year Paypal was spun off to become an independent publicly listed company. The spin-off was completed on July 18.

No credit card linked transactions

If you read the Deposit with PayPal instructions at WSOP.com you’ll find the following limitation to its use:

“Please note:
You will not be able to make a PayPal deposit on WSOP.com using the credit/debit card linked to your PayPal account.
In order to make a deposit onto your WSOP.com account using your ‘PayPal balance’ you must have an active bank account linked to your PayPal account.”

This ensures players will not be able to go into credit card debt (via PayPal) to fund their online poker habits. Curiously they are able to deposit directly using their credit cards anyway.

Just another softly added to the softly-softly re-entry strategy.