The Digital-Wallet Era Is Changing The Way Players Fund Online Casino Accounts
The way UK players fund their online casino accounts has changed dramatically over the past six years. Debit cards and digital wallets have taken over from credit cards, and bank-to-bank payments are now moving into the mainstream. For anyone weighing up their options, from the payment options look very different to how it did at the start of the decade.
Why Card Payments Fell Out Of Favour
The turning point came on April 14, 2020, when the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) banned the use of credit cards for almost all forms of gambling. The regulator said it did not want people betting with money they did not have. Overnight, players who had funded accounts on credit had to switch to a debit card or another method.
Debit cards absorbed much of that spending, but the ban also opened the door to alternatives. Players wanted faster and more private ways to move money, and the card networks no longer had the checkout to themselves.
The Rise Of E-Wallets And Mobile Payments
E-wallets such as PayPal, Skrill and Neteller have filled the gap, letting players keep a buffer between their bank and their casino account.
Mobile payments followed, with Apple Pay and Google Pay adding fingerprint and face recognition to deposits.
Players who prefer to keep their banking one step removed often look for Apple Pay casinos or other wallet-friendly sites when they sign up to avoid having to manually enter their credit card details each time they desposit.
The appeal is speed and security. A wallet deposit clears in seconds, the casino never sees the underlying card or account details, and the same login can be reused across dozens of sites. For the player, this meant a faster withdrawal option.
Open Banking Moves Into The Mainstream
The newest shift is open banking, also called pay-by-bank, which lets a player pay a casino straight from their current account with no card involved. Adoption is climbing fast. The UK recorded 351 million open banking payments in 2025, up 57% on the previous year, according to Open Banking Limited, and the ecosystem passed one billion payments in total in 2026.
Providers that specialise in the technology have scaled with it. Trustly, one of the largest pay-by-bank firms, now reports more than 120m users worldwide.
For casinos the attraction is a frictionless deposit that authenticates through the player's own banking app, which also cuts the fraud and chargeback risk that comes with cards.
What It Means For Players And Safer Gambling
The move away from cards is not only about convenience. Bank-to-bank and wallet payments give operators and regulators a clearer view of how much money is flowing in, which matters as the UKGC rolls out new financial risk checks. Those assessments began at £500 a month from August 30, 2024 before dropping to £150 a month from February 28, 2025, and a UKGC pilot found that most accounts above the threshold could be reviewed without the player having to do anything.
Many banks now let customers switch on a gambling block that stops these transactions altogether, another safeguard the card era did not offer. For players comparing online casinos, the practical takeaway is simple: there are more ways to deposit than ever, and the safest choice is usually the method that gives the most control over spending. Expect open banking to keep taking share as more sites make it the default option at the cashier.
