Online gambling was legalized in Canada back in 2009 and since then
this country’s gambling market has exceeded C$30 billion. This
incredible growth owes much to Canadian gambling laws which allow
citizens to play at regulated and licensed offshore casinos.
This expansion of the remote gambling sector in Canada has also spawned numerous payment methods, both international and homegrown. Since the player’s safety is a top priority, we’ve put together this list so you can be sure you’ve chosen the most reliable payment method for your gaming experience.
Good Ol’ Cards
People love making online casino deposits with credit cards since they’re generally free, SSL protected, widely accepted, and instant. Whilst there are many providers to choose from, VISA and Mastercard are the most common ones due to the simple fact that everyone already has one or the other. Both credit card companies offer three types of cards – prepaid, credit, and debit – although VISA’s popularity is somewhat greater simply because a number of places won’t allow withdrawal of funds from Mastercard anymore. But, as far as deposits are concerned, they’re identical.
The prepaid cards offer the most security since there’s no need to
create an account and no PIN code is included that can get into the
wrong hands. You need to select the ʽcreditʼ option and the deposit
amount is automatically deducted from your balance. Most prepaid cards
are reloadable, but if you want to retain complete anonymity you’ll need
to visit your bank in person every time you want to reload it.
This is why many players consider credit and debit cards more convenient, although you need to fill in personal information in the deposit section so that the transaction can be approved. While providing personal info might seem like a security risk, keep in mind we’re talking about the biggest credit card issuers, accepted worldwide.
Homegrown
VISA may be the most widespread payment provider for instant banking, but Canada has its own alternative – Interac. This homegrown product, besides the fact it eliminates bank transfer processing times, also offers CAD bank accounts so there’s no conversion from USD. This method is only available to Canadians and has a proud tradition of over 30 years as the official national debit payment processing system, which is more than enough to make it trustworthy. Just keep in mind that there’s a wide range of different products and you need Interac e-Transfer or Interac Online for your deposits, so read more about Interac payments before you give it a try.
As a deposit confirmation, Interac sends you a chosen security question via email, text, or other contact option. As you verify your identity by answering the question, the funds are immediately placed into your online casino account. For withdrawals, you need to specify the bank account where you wish to receive the funds and also provide the security question and answer. Once the casino confirms that the answer matches the one for the online banking account, the transfer is authorized. The security with this payment method is a major benefit since it doesn’t require any lengthy delays.
An Electronic Voucher
In case you simply don’t want any account nor to share personal or
banking information, there’s another alternative to the above-mentioned
prepaid cards. It is called PaySafeCard and it’s basically an electronic
voucher. All you need to do it is purchase the plastic card with the
chosen denomination – 5, 10, 25, 50, or 100 dollars – and deposit money
from it directly.
The 16-digit PIN secures the payments which take only seconds to process. No credit checks and no account numbers are needed. You can also reload the card and no matter how many times you do it, the PIN remains the same. The only real downfall is that withdrawals are not possible so you’ll have to combine it with a different method to retrieve your funds.
Bulletproof Verification
There’s another homegrown instant banking method called Instadebit,
but it’s much less popular then Interac simply because it requires a lot
of personal and financial details. During the registration process,
you’ll be required to enter the last digits of your social security
card, your address, and your name. Then, to link your bank account with
Instadebit, you’ll need to enter the account, routing, and branch
numbers. Once your identity is verified, you’ll need to log into your
account and verify again that it belongs to you.
Sharing that much confidential information online might seem like a security risk, but the safety of this payment method lies precisely in this whole verification process. All the required information makes it bulletproof, and none of the details are shared with third parties.
All online casino payment methods on this list are known for their trustworthiness and some of them well beyond Canada’s borders. The choice comes to personal convenience and whether an online casino you wish to try out accepts them. It’s also important to keep in mind that a portion of this safety also depends on us, the users, practicing due diligence in our online transactions. No bank will ever aks for passwords, usernames, or account numbers, so stay away from spam emails inviting you to click on some link and follow the instructions.