US Poker Banking Options

Banking Options for US Online Poker Players

Banking Method	Deposits	Withdrawals	Deposit Fees	Withdrawal Fees
Checks			-	Compare fees and withdrawal times
Credit Cards			Compare fees	-
Click2Pay			3%	-
eChecks Unavailable right now.			None	-
Moneygram			$1 and up (Estimate price)	10-26% (See a chart)
MypaylinQ			6-7.5%	None
PIC Club Unavailable right now.			0-7%+$1	$10-$20
Rapid Transfer			$12-$20	7.5-20%
Western Union			8-25% (Estimate price)	10-35% (See a chart)

Only a Few Banking Options for US Players Exist

US online poker players have been left with only a few online poker banking methods. This is mainly because of the UIGEA (Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act). The UIGEA makes it illegal for companies to handle money transfers which deal with ”unlawful internet gambling”.

Since the UIGEA is an enforcement act, though, it doesn't directly make anything illegal, as some other law has to be violated in order to bring the UIGEA into the picture. If a business handles money transfers for the purpose of ”unlawful” internet gambling, the unlawfulness of the action depends on whether it, in fact, is ”unlawful”, which in turn depends on federal, state and tribal laws. If the transaction is ”unlawful” in a certain state, then the business commits a crime for handling the transfer.

The threat of handling unlawful transactions has forced many former US online poker banking options to exit the US market and therefore there are significantly less deposit and withdrawal options for US players than there were a few years ago, for instance.

Latest Updates

04/01/2012: MyPaylinQ bans players from four states:
As of now, players from Maryland, New York, Utah and Washington are banned from using MyPaylinQ. At the same time, Bovada.lv (the only online poker site using MyPaylinQ) also banned players from the mentioned states.

02/11/2012: PIC Club no longer an option at US poker sites:
Now that the Everleaf Gaming Network has left the US market, PIC Club isn't a banking option at any of the available US poker sites. Even though their website [www.picclub.com] looks and works like a disaster, the company received minimal complaints when operating as a banking option for US players throughout the last few years. Here's to hoping we'll be able to see them return to available banking options at US online poker sites soon.

12/28/2011: BetOnline's credit card deposit fees:
Those willing to play at BetOnline Poker should know about a recent change in their deposit fees for credit cards, which is now a massive 6%. Even worse, this fee isn't clearly explained to customers, so most find out only after depositing that they were deducted a fee. As you can see from the credit card fee comparison page, Bovada is the only other poker room taking any fee for credit card deposits!