At the moment, only 888 Poker welcome Apple Pay deposits. This is also restricted to UK based players. 888 are fully licensed by the UK Gambling Commission and also have a Gibraltar license. The parent company, 888 Holdings, is also listed on the London Stock Exchange. In short, very few poker sites are more reputable.
What Are the Benefits of Apple Pay Poker Sites?
Security is the main feature of this payment system. This works in conjunction with the touch Id fingerprint scanner, which makes it very difficult for anyone to access your account. This means that there are no passwords to steal.
Another benefit is the ease of use within poker iPhone apps. You can tap to pay, verify with your fingerprint and be up and running within seconds. If you have ever tried adding credit card information on a smaller screen, then you will know exactly how tricky this can be.
As Apple Pay becomes more popular, there are many more poker sites which could potentially add this method.
What Are the Drawbacks of Apple Pay?
If you do not have an iPhone, iPad or Mac with Touch Id technology, then this system is not available to you. Phones will need to be more recent models, as the fingerprint tech was only added recently.
The main drawback at the moment is that many of the poker sites do not yet accept Apple Pay deposits. Fortunately, the only that does welcome these (888) are the best global poker site around. This restriction also applies to countries. While players from the UK can use this system, those in other countries can’t as yet.
Practical Guide – How to Use Apple Pay for Poker Site Deposits
There are two ways of using Apple Pay, directly from inside an app on your iPhone, or via a website using either a Touch Id MacBook or separate iPhone.
This payment method works best within the 888 iPhone App. I’ll assume that by this stage you have registered your account, enjoyed the £20 in tokens available as a no-deposit bonus, and are ready to claim your 100% matched welcome offer.
To pay you simply head to the cashier via the app, choose Apple Pay, enter the amount you wish to deposit and tap the pay button. You will then see Apple Pay, which will ask for fingerprint verification. Remember to double check the details, then touch the pay button. You will hear a sound, and there will be a green check mark over the amount. You will now see the money in your 888 Poker account and are ready to hit those real money tables.
Via a website you can also choose Apple Pay. You will be asked to enter your account number here, which will then send the payment verification to your phone or Apple Watch. You complete the purchase using your fingerprint scanner. On the watch, you double right click to approve the payment.
Apple Pay is for deposits only. Moving forward I hope we can see this system also used for withdrawals!
Alternatives to Apple Pay
Since this payment method is only available at one site, and in one country (the UK), many readers will be looking for alternatives.
If you are in one of the regulated global markets, then there are a lot of poker payment options available to you. The most popular are credit or debit cards, which are used in the same way as when you are making any online purchase. Electronic Wallet systems like PayPal, Neteller and Skrill are also common. These systems have the advantage of adding an extra layer of security between your bank account and the different gambling sites. Keep in mind that they do charge a small fee, sometimes when you deposit and sometimes when you receive money instead.
Canadian players can’t yet use Apple Pay, and have some restrictions on the traditional credit card and eWallet methods. Fortunately, there are plenty of alternative poker payment methods available. These include 2 popular Canadian payment options, iDebit and Interac. You can also use some prepaid vouchers and wire money using transfer services. Credit cards will work some of the time.
US Based Players: Apple Pay is not yet available for the regulated US poker sites in Nevada, New Jersey or Delaware. For offshore sites, mobile apps are not used, and advanced mobile payments are also not possible Bitcoin is very popular for US players at the moment, with the alternative cryptocurrency, Litecoin also welcomed at BetOnline. Credit Cards can be used, as long as your card is able to make overseas purchases payments should go through without an issue. Person to Person transfers and prepaid Visa cards are also in use.
I hope that innovative payment systems like Apple Pay will become the normal way to deposit at online poker sites soon.
