Online Casinos That Accept Paypal

Paypal is an online payment service with deep ties to South Africa. After all, it was co-founded by Elon Musk, who was born in the country. Beyond that, Paypal is also one of the world’s most prominent online payment systems.

Anybody who has ever used eBay to buy anything knows about Paypal. The company was in fact owned by eBay for a time. While Paypal allows you to do many things – shop online, pay your friends across the internet, pay bills online – it does not have a very good relationship with online casinos.

Why is that the case? Can you use Paypal at online casinos in South Africa? Is it a safe and reliable payment method for online gambling? If so, how can you set up an account and use Paypal at online casinos in South Africa? We will give you the answers to all these questions in full detail.

Before that, here is our handpicked list of the best Paypal online casinos for South African players:

Paypal was the first successful online payments company. Founded in 1998 as Confinity by entrepreneurs Peter Thiel, Max Levchin, and Luke Nosek, it began in the mobile security business. But failure there led the firm to shift to digital wallets and electronic payments.

Paypal proper was created in the year 2000 when Confinity merged with X.com, an online financial services company founded by the South Africa-born entrepreneur Elon Musk. The new company was renamed Paypal and things really took off from there.

In 2002, after a successful IPO, Paypal was bought for $1.5 billion by eBay. The brand soon became world-famous as it was the main payment method for eBay customers. Paypal became an independent company again in 2015 after eBay gave it up for business reasons.

After leaving eBay, Paypal has continued to grow at a phenomenal pace. It has over 300 million active users and made over 15.4 billion online payments in 2020. In the online payments market, it has a humongous share of 54.48%. Paypal supports over 26 currencies, though ZAR is not one of them.

Paypal works primarily as an online wallet – you can think of it as a digital checking account. To use Paypal for online payments, you have to deposit money into it using an existing credit/debit card, or a net banking account.

You can also use Paypal without depositing money into it. First, you have to link a valid debit/credit card to your Paypal account. When making a payment online, you can select this card as a payment method through Paypal.

The advantage here is that your card information is kept a secret from the merchant or online eCommerce platform. They will only see your Paypal account data. This is one of the advantages of using e-wallets for online shopping and payments in general.

Before the US government shut down online casinos, Paypal had an excellent relationship with the online gambling industry. You could use it for casino deposits and withdrawals with ease. All that changed between 2006 – 2011, when the US Justice Department cracked down on online gambling sites and poker platforms.

Since then, Paypal has maintained a strict verification process when dealing with online casinos. It will only work with licensed online gambling operators, and that too in countries where online gambling is fully legal and strictly regulated. As a result, US customers could not use Paypal at offshore online casinos.

The situation has changed somewhat in recent years after the legalization of online casinos in states like New Jersey. Licensed casinos operating in these states have full support for Paypal payments. The situation is the same across the Atlantic – in UK and EU countries where online gambling is fully legal and regulated, you can find casinos with Paypal.

But South Africa is more complicated – online casino gambling while not strictly illegal, operate in a grey area here. There is no licensing system for gambling sites so they cannot use Paypal for transactions. Even if a UK/Malta casino has Paypal support, it cannot legally offer the payment service to South African residents.

However, Paypal is legally available in South Africa – you just cannot use it for online gambling transactions. It can be used for all other types of online eCommerce payments and bill payments. You can also send and receive money from your relatives overseas.

You can easily create a Paypal account in South Africa by visiting the official website using a computer or smartphone. The signup process is pretty simple, but do note that Paypal is incredibly strict when it comes to complying with income tax and money laundering laws.

If you want to use all the Paypal services without restrictions, you will need a fully verified account. And for that, you will need the following things ready:

• A working email address
• Phone number
• South African bank account with net banking enabled
• A copy of your bank statement
• An active credit/debit card
• National ID Card/Passport for ID proof
• A copy of the SARS document for the Income Tax number

You have two main options when creating a Paypal Account – Individual and Business. Use a business account if you plan to sell stuff or get paid for services online. For purchases and online gaming, use an individual account. Follow the on-screen instructions and agree to the Paypal terms to create an account. After creating an account, you will have to do the following:

• Link your Paypal account to your bank account
• Add ID and income tax documents
• Link your credit/debit card to your profile

Paypal is an official partner of the First National Bank (FNB) in South Africa. You can use Paypal even if you are not an FNB customer. But you have to visit the FNB page and link your bank account to Paypal – this applies to all Paypal account holders, whether you have an FNB account or not.

Once again, let us remind you that Paypal is not available inside South Africa as a payment option for online casinos. But if you are in the UK or EU, where online casinos are fully regulated, you may use an overseas Paypal account for deposits. It has the following simple steps:

• First, check your Paypal account and ensure that you have money in it
• You can skip that step if your Paypal account is linked to a credit card
• Log in to your casino account and go to the deposit section
• Pick Paypal from the list of available payment methods
• Enter the amount you wish to deposit, after checking the casino minimum deposit requirements
• Provide your Paypal account username and password to authorize the transaction

The money will be instantly deposited into your casino account. Paypal deposits do not carry any extra fees at online casinos that accept paypal. You can start playing your favorite slots and card games in minutes!

Using Paypal for Casino Withdrawals

The process for requesting a Paypal casino withdrawal is largely identical to the steps mentioned above. The process may differ slightly depending on your casino rules, but not by much. You can expect the following steps:

• Log in to your casino account and ensure that you have adequate balance to make a withdrawal request
• Go to the withdrawal/cashier section of the casino
• Pick Paypal as your payment method – this option is only available if you already used Paypal for deposits
• Specify how much you want to withdraw and submit your request

The casino will take up to 48 hours to process your request. After successful approval, the credits will be transferred to your Paypal account – this should only take a few minutes – so you can expect instant withdrawal once the casino processes your request.

Do note that you will have to go to your Paypal account and make a separate withdrawal request if you want the money to reach your bank account. Paypal may take anywhere from 24  – 72 hours to transfer funds to your bank account.

Paypal is widely considered the best online payments platform. But its utility for legal online casinos in South Africa is largely a mixed bag. Here are the main pros and cons of Paypal from an online gambling perspective:

If there were fully regulated online gambling in South Africa, there is no doubt that Paypal would be on top of our list of the best online payment options. But as things stand, Paypal does not allow South Africa online casinos to accept payments from SA residents. If you want a secure and reliable Paypal alternative for online gambling in South Africa, we recommend Skrill, Neteller, or Ecopayz.