Winning at casinos sometimes comes with paying what is known as withdrawal fees before you can withdraw your earnings. Expectedly, this has caught a lot of casino players unaware, consequently resulting in mixed reactions.
Most players don’t understand why they suddenly have to start paying to withdraw their winnings, while some don’t even understand what withdrawal fees are. In this article, we’ll comprehensively demystify withdrawal fees and why casinos started charging them. Let’s get right into it!
What Are Withdrawal Transaction Fees?
As the name suggests, withdrawal fees are commissions demanded by casinos when a user initiates a withdrawal. With these withdrawal fees, players can’t withdraw all their earnings immediately after making a deposit.
This is so because gambling sites pay a payment system 20% whenever a player withdraws their earnings. That is, whenever you deposit, withdraw, and make another deposit, your casino is automatically put at a loss of at least 20%, a commission deducted by payment systems.
Therefore, we can safely say that these payment systems consume a significant percentage of casino sites’ profit. As such, introducing a commission to withdraw only appears plausible, at least from the bookmakers’ end. But the commission is only to be paid by players who have exhausted their three-time free maximum attempts.
Why Payment Systems Charge Higher Fees To Casinos
Payment systems are financial organizations similar to banks but with few service offerings. Typically, payment systems primarily process online transactions only. Payment systems deduct commission on virtually all transactions, but extreme caution has significantly directed towards casino sites over the years.
The reasons stem from the casino’s bad reputation as an online haven for money laundering. Further, we will discuss a few reasons payment systems charge higher fees to casinos.
Concerns For Money Laundering
Over the years, casinos have acquired a bad reputation for money laundering concerns. It is not uncommon for fraudsters to deposit ill-gotten money into a casino account, play for a while and then withdraw as “clean money”. As such, governments worldwide severely punish any payment system where money laundering occurs.
While it is practically impossible for a payment system to have a spotless record, payment systems have since considered transactions coming from casinos with more caution and prejudice. In this regard, payment systems charge higher on transactions with online casinos.
Online Fraudsters
The Internet is full of scammers. All over the web, they crawl for websites, especially casino ones, preying on players’ sensitive information and details. Once they eventually access a user’s account, they wipe off the user’s earnings and deposit ill-gotten money into the account.
However, immediately a player senses an odd activity and reports to the payment to reverse the transaction. Legally, it is bounding on the payment system to reverse the transaction.
In most cases, the action is often irreversible, and the payment system has no option but to refund the user’s account. So, it is understandable when payment systems charge high fees; they are done to cover potential losses arising from such a scenario.
How Are These Fees Charged And Paid?
The most common ways fees are charged include:
- Percentage-Based: The rate is often the same and is the most popular.
- Fixed. This type of fee is rare, but it doesn’t change.
Unknown to most casino players, casino sites often pay these fees independently. For example, some casinos routinely get a 5% deduction on every deposit players make. So, if a player makes 100 EUR as a deposit, a casino site will only receive 95 EUR. The same goes for withdrawals.
It, therefore, explains why casinos frank at frequent or intermittent withdrawals. Also, some fees are paid by casino players themselves. Another way fees are paid is through casino players themselves. Although this often elicits reactions from casino players.
Step By Step Method On How To Make Withdrawals
While different casinos have different ways of processing withdrawals, there is always a basic process each of them follows.
- You log in to your registered accounts and proceed to open your profile.
- Click the “wallet” or “cashier” options on your registered account.
- The site demands you select your preferred payment method to make a withdrawal.
- You fill in all your essential details to continue the process.
- The amount you want to be withdrawn is shown after completing the previous process.
- Casino sites require that you confirm the information you’ve provided.
- After you’ve confirmed your details, the site processes the transaction until you get your withdrawals.
Methods Of Withdrawal
In casinos, there are usually three main methods of withdrawal. They include Bank transfers, e-wallets, and credit and debit cards. The table below comprehensively explains each withdrawal method to help you decide which is best for you.
| Methods Of Withdrawal | Details |
| Bank Transfers | Bank transfers are popular methods of payment in casinos. Bank transfers are generally preferred methods as they come under strict requirements.
Usually, bank transfers are subjected to strict KYC procedures, which protect against online scams and money laundering. But bank transfers are not without their downsides. For example, they are usually slow and can take time until a transaction is validated. Also, they come with transaction fees, which quite vary. |
| Debit/Credit Card | Generally, debit/credit cards are the most popular online payment. In betting and online casinos, there’s no exception. They are primarily used for reliability since they’re linked directly to users’ accounts.
The popular debit/credit cards accepted in casinos are Visa and Mastercard. On some rare occasions, American Express is accepted. |
| E-Wallets | Digital or E-wallets are another common way of depositing and withdrawing at online casinos. They are essentially applications used in saving or storing digitally.
E-wallets are reliably faster. Deposits made get almost instantly delivered. In addition, they don’t also charge transactional fees. Popular e-wallets include Skrill and Neteller. |
| Cryptocurrency | Notable gambling sites have started accepting cryptocurrency as a preferred deposit and withdrawal method. This is understandable, particularly because cryptocurrencies are more secure due to blockchain technology’s transparent and open-source features.
Besides bitcoin, casinos accept other alt-coins such as Litecoin, Ethereum, and Dogecoin. However, those mentioned above are often preferred because many believe they process transactions faster than Bitcoin. Indeed, we’re likely to see more influx of cryptocurrencies in casinos in the future. |
What Happens When You Can’t Withdraw Winnings?
Online casino players often report cases when they cannot withdraw their casino accounts’ earnings on winnings. A number of reasons can account for this.
It could be that you’ve not met the wagering requirement, or you didn’t provide enough verification documents, and maybe you’re being unfortunately defrauded by dubious casinos. Let’s analyze them in detail.
Not Meeting The Wagering Requirements
The wagering requirement is how much you’re required to bet to withdraw all the money in your casino account. So, for instance, if you are given $50 as a bonus on a 10x wagering requirement, you’ll need to spend $500 on betting before you can withdraw whatever you’ve.
So, wagering requirements are the number of times you have to play games before you can withdraw your winning. Wagering requirements often range from 15x to 45x, depending on the casino.
Unfortunately, when players win, they are often unaware of the necessary wagering requirements they need to meet. Therefore, while playing real money gambling, you must understand the wagering requirement before withdrawing.
Dubious Casinos
As written earlier, there are several fraudulent casinos online. Most of these scammers prey on unsuspecting users’ accounts and immediately wipe off the balance when a deposit is made.
As a result, you must constantly ensure the casino betting site you want to use is legitimate before depositing. To confirm the legitimacy of a casino website, check important details like the SSL certificates in the address bar or the license information in the footer section.
Failing To Provide A Verification Document
Casinos usually verify the authenticity of users before approving a transaction. If you fail to provide enough conviction of the authenticity of your account, your withdrawal might not be released. Therefore, you must provide crucial information such as your ID, a utility bill, and proof of deposit.
Conclusion
These days, casinos often charge a paltry commission on withdrawals. While it has generated controversies, the reason is understandably straightforward.
Casinos use payment systems to process transactions, and due to increased scams and fraud, payment systems deduct a percentage to recoup potential instances of loss. These losses peg back on casinos, and commissions are also charged to cut losses.
Importantly though, these commissions are pretty negligible, and it helps when you withdraw your earnings at once instead of doing so intermittently, as is the case with many.
