The legality of online gambling for U.S. players is one that has come into question recently, in the face of U.S. legislation banning the use of many electronic payment methods for online gambling. Central to this issue is the passage of the Safe Port Act legislation act of 2006, which has undoubtedly caused a great deal of concern for U.S. players.
Many proponents of online gambling–who are unsurprisingly concerned with ways to find legal loopholes around this law–are of the opinion that this law intends to curtail financial transactions directed towards casino web sites, and not to target people who engage in online gambling activities. In any case, even the various states appear to have their own stances on the matter, with policies regarding online gambling being different from state to state.
Different gambling web sites have come up with their own policies to address this issue. Some gambling web sites implicitly state that any form of gambling by U.S. residents is illegal, regardless of whether they play from within U.S. territories or overseas. Some other gambling web sites allow players who do not reside in any of the 11 gambling illegal states to go on with their activities. These states include Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, Nevada, New York, New Jersey, Oregon, South Dakota, Washington, and Wisconsin. Still other gambling web sites allow U.S. players to gamble in their casinos without restriction.
Naturally, all this confusion has resulted in some uncertainty with regard to payment methods that are acceptable for U.S. casino players. Visa payments for instance are generally open for making deposits, although certain gambling web sites may reject certain transactions. MasterCard is also a popular option–coming in second only to Visa payments–although again, certain transactions may be blocked. If you have no luck using either of these payment methods, you may be better off checking out your other alternatives.
As for American Express, payment with this service is a bit hit or miss at the moment. There are some casinos that accept payments from U.S. casino players by way of Amex with no trouble, although a few others are quite hesitant to do so.
Western Union as a payment method surprisingly remains legal for use with gambling web sites by U.S. players. Many players continue to use this service with no difficulty. The Wire Transfer method of course continues to be a popular option for players from the Untied States, and some gambling web sites even offer bonuses and additional perks for using this payment method.
MoneyGram is another acceptable payment option and they allow payments to casino web sites from players from all over the world.
Some other acceptable payment options for U.S. casino players who wish to play in the online gambling web sites are eWalletXpress, Solid Debit Card, and eCheck. Keep in mind however that eCheck is increasingly limiting its services to new U.S. casino players, although current members should be able to use it for making payments without any difficulty. |
USA ACCEPTED 