Online gambling is a multi-billion dollar industry today. With hundreds of thousands of players all over the world actively taking part in online casinos, the future of the industry seems quite bright. However, the industry has faced its fair share of problems as well. The USA, which, in the beginning, was the biggest contributor in terms of players for online casinos, passed the UIGEA in 2006. This has resulted in a mass exodus of some of top online casinos from the country. Players from the US can not only find it difficult to find a casino which accepts them, but they also have trouble finding a viable deposit option in some cases.  Thankfully there are enough high quality online casinos remaining in the USA market to allow players to enjoy some of the best gaming action that the legal online gambling industry has to offer.

What happened to the traditional methods?

MasterCard and Visa are two of the most widely used credit cards in the world. So it is natural for players to use these cards for the online gambling transactions. However, the UIGEA made it illegal for financial institutions to support any transactions related to online gambling. This means that players would not be able to use their credit cards in the US. The same is true for other popular credit cards like American Express and Diners Club International. Even e-wallet services like Neteller bailed out of the market leaving players with few options.  There are some rare cases where credit card transactions are successful, however in most cases USA players use their credit cards with a third party, such as an e-wallet to fund their online casino accounts rather than trying to use their credit cards directly at the casino banking suite.

Best deposit methods to use now

Despite various financial institutions backing out, there are still deposit methods that can allow US players to enjoy their favorite online games. Here are a few of these methods.

Using cash transfer companies: The real problem arises from the fact that financial institutions cannot be involved in the transactions. The best possible way to solve this problem is by taking these institutions out of the equation. A lot of casinos now accept direct cash payment through services like Western Union Money Transfer and MoneyGram. Western Union in particular has been really popular amongst players as it is a highly trusted service operating for over a 150 years. All you need to do is go to the casino site, get the details regarding the payment that you have to make, and then send the money through your preferred cash transfer company. One of the advantages of using this method is that you do not have to give any of your financial details to the casino.

E-checks: E-checks are basically checks sent over the internet. This is again a fantastic option for US based players as the turnaround time for these checks is very small compared to normal checks. All you have to do is choose the option of e-check at your online casino and then enter your account number and the routing number for the checking account. You can find all this information at the bottom of the check book that you have.

Credit cards and e-wallets: Credit cards like MasterCard and Visa are still used by a lot of people and you can try your luck with them at a casino as well. The problem is the clearance rates are not 100%. Even though popular e-wallet companies like Neteller do not support US customers now, you can use US friendly credit card options such as Visa, MasterCard and American Express.

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