Crypto vs Traditional Payments at Online Casinos

The traditional payment methods at online casinos have always been credit cards, bank transfers, and e-wallets. But cryptocurrencies have long since entered the market, and it’s being used more and more by the greater population. But what is best? In this article, we’ll have a close look at which type of payment option is the best one for players at Australian online casinos.

Security and Privacy

One of the main concerns for anyone who pays for anything online should be security. No matter which payment option you’re using, you need to make sure that you don’t leave information behind that allows others to access your funds. Luckily, online payments are much more secure now than they were a decade ago, thanks to encryption. But let’s look at what security cryptos and fiat payments offer:

Security of Fiat Payments

For fiat payments, the most secure option has always been bank transfers, since these transfers originate with your bank. Payment cards like Visa and Mastercard have always been a different story since you have to enter your card details at the casino site. When paying with a debit or credit card, you need to ensure that the site you’re using is PCI DSS compliant. This security standard is developed by the card industry itself and provides the highest security for card payments.

Security of Cryptocurrency Transactions

The security associated with cryptocurrency is very high, as the security aspect is one of the main reasons for these currencies to even exist. Thanks to the various blockchains, no one can interfere with your transfers. And, since the transfers originate with your crypto wallet, and you don’t add any information at the casino, the security can be likened to that of bank transfers. As long as the crypto exchange or wallet you’re using is secure, there is no way for anyone to intercept your payment details or transfers.

Transaction Speed and Fees

In terms of the speed of deposits, nothing beats card payments and e-wallets, as these are truly instant. You’ll never have to wait for your deposit to arrive so that you can start playing.

For cryptocurrencies, this is, unfortunately, not the case. But, it’s not because the casino wants to place a delay on it. It’s simply because the crypto transfer has to be sent from your crypto wallet to the casino’s crypto wallet, and how fast that goes depends on the blockchain. If there’s a lot of traffic on the blockchain, it can often take anything between 30 and 60 minutes for the funds to arrive.

In terms of fees, cryptos have the upper hand, at least on the casino’s side of things. Casinos typically don’t charge any fees for the payment. But, your crypto wallet and exchange will charge a fee, how much that is can’t be impacted by the casino. Usually, it’s not much, though.

Card payments do come with a fee, but since thighs is a set fee the casino often pays for it so that the transaction will seem fee-free to you. But it’s not always the case, so you might find fees of around 2.5% added for a card transaction to a casino. E-wallets can have fees as high as 5%.

Casino Licences and Player Protection

Online casinos that Aussie players choose to use typically have a gambling licence from Malta or from Curacao. Which license your casino has will impact the payment options you have available. Casinos with a licence from the Malta Gaming Authority will only accept traditional fiat payment methods. They do not allow their casinos to accept cryptocurrencies.

Casinos licensed in Curacao have the option to offer legal crypto payments, and most of them do.

So, then the question is which gambling licence is the safest one for Australian players. The answer to this is the Maltese licence. However, Curacao have just recently changed their licences, and how they regulate online casinos and gambling. With this, they are hoping to bring the standards of their regulatory authorities up to the level of the Maltese. This means that they will soon (hopefully) be able to offer the same player protection that players under a Maltese licence get to enjoy.

Acceptance and Accessibility

Any country that does not have its own gambling licences for offshore gambling companies, like Australia, has a disadvantage when it comes to payment methods at online casinos. Popular online payment options like PayPal and Apple Pay are only accepted in regulated markets.

Furthermore, which fiat payment options are the most popular differ in all countries, which also makes the availability of options closely tied to the country. A casino will often only offer a good selection of fiat payment methods to countries that are one of their core markets. So if the casino is not targeting Australia as a market, you might find very few options to choose between.

This is a problem that doesn’t exist for crypto users. Since the country has nothing to do with the ability to use a cryptocurrency, Aussies have the same crypto options as everyone else. So if you use cryptocurrencies at an online casino, you can always be sure that you have viable options for both deposits and withdrawals. This is one of the greatest benefits of using crypto – seen from a casino perspective.