United States Betting Payment Methods

Is online betting legal in the United States?

State by state. On 14 May 2018 the Supreme Court struck down the federal ban on state-authorised sports betting in Murphy v. NCAA: “Congress can regulate sports gambling directly, but if it elects not to do so, each State is free to act on its own.” Since then each state decides whether to allow sports betting, in person or online, and licenses its own operators; tribal authorities license gambling on tribal land. New Jersey’s Division of Gaming Enforcement took over sports wagering in June 2018 and oversaw the opening of eighteen sports books in six months, nine of them online; by 2022 it listed 27 authorised mobile sports wagering sites and 39 online casino sites, and required multi-factor authentication on every New Jersey account.

The federal layer is about money, not bets. The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006, applied through the Federal Reserve’s Regulation GG, forbids a betting business from knowingly accepting payments for unlawful internet gambling and requires the card networks, acquirers, issuers, ACH operators, banks handling wires and cheques and money transmitters to keep written procedures to identify and block such payments. For cards the example in the Fed’s guide is a gambling merchant code combined with a card-not-present transaction; the reasonable proof that a gambling business is lawful is a licence issued by a US state or tribal authority. This is why a card can be declined at a site without a state licence while it works at a licensed sportsbook.

Winnings are taxable income. The IRS states that gambling winnings are fully taxable and must be reported, and the payer issues Form W-2G above the reporting threshold, $2,000 for payments made in 2026. Regular withholding of 24% applies when the winnings minus the wager exceed $5,000 from sweepstakes, wagering pools and lotteries, and from sports wagering when the win is also at least 300 times the stake; a foreign person is withheld at 30%. Losses can be deducted only by taxpayers who itemise, never beyond the winnings reported, and for tax years beginning after 31 December 2025 the One Big Beautiful Bill Act limits the deduction to 90% of the losses.

Which payment methods work from the United States

Of the 12 bookmakers open to the United States, 9 list Visa and 9 Mastercard, 5 Apple Pay, 5 Neteller, 5 Paysafecard, 5 Skrill, 4 Google Pay, 3 Maestro, 2 PayPal and 2 Revolut. Four name a bank transfer and two Trustly. Seven take Bitcoin and Ethereum, five of them crypto betting sites. Not one lists Discover or American Express, the two American card companies.

• Debit, not credit. No law bans credit cards, but the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau found in December 2024 that the large issuers treat bets as cash advances: a fee of $10 or 5% of the amount, whichever is greater, interest from the day of the transaction, and 30% as the most common interest rate. Discover’s cardmember agreement files “online gambling” under cash advances and American Express “online betting transactions”; Bank of America and Wells Fargo say they may decline internet gambling altogether. A debit card avoids all of it.
• The network may block the payment. Under Regulation GG the card system must deny a gambling merchant code on a card-not-present transaction unless the merchant can show a state or tribal licence. A decline at an offshore site is the rule working, not a fault of your card.
• PayPal only at approved operators. PayPal prohibits gambling transactions by US account holders unless the merchant has been approved, and an approved merchant must be able to block US players wherever gambling is illegal. Two of the 12 list it; at a state-licensed sportsbook the cashier is the only reliable check.
• Apple Pay and Google Pay for deposits. Both work in the United States with a debit card in the phone; withdrawals return to the card or to the bank account.
• Wallets and vouchers. Skrill opens US accounts and loads cards free there; Paysafecard is sold in the United States and accepts betting payments only from a registered account. Neteller and Skrill each appear at five of the 12.

Local payment methods

Online banking. The American way to pay a bookmaker from a bank account is a bank-login payment through a provider such as Trustly, listed by two of the 12 and used by DraftKings and FanDuel among others: you pick your bank, sign in, and the deposit is pulled from the account with no card and, in Trustly’s words, without ever paying fees or extra charges. Trustly, Inc. supports most US banks and financial institutions and, since 21 May 2024, pays Caesars Sportsbook withdrawals back to the bank account in real time over the RTP network, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

PayPal. At the operators PayPal has approved, the balance moves in and out of the sportsbook at once, and PayPal’s US instant transfer to a bank account or debit card costs 1.75% with a minimum of $0.25 and a maximum of $25; the standard transfer is free.

Debit cards and Visa Direct. Visa has asked US issuers since 2016 to make a Visa Direct credit available within 30 minutes, so a withdrawal to a debit card can be faster in the United States than in Europe; whether a given bank accepts gambling credits is the bank’s decision.

How to deposit and withdraw from the United States

• Keep the account in dollars. 8 of the 12 bookmakers offer a USD account; at the four crypto sites that do not, the stake is held in coin and the price moves with it.
• Use a debit card or online banking. A credit card costs $10 or 5% in cash-advance fees plus interest from day one, if the issuer lets the transaction through at all.
• Expect a block at unlicensed sites. Regulation GG tells banks and card networks to stop payments to gambling businesses without a state or tribal licence; a licensed sportsbook in your state is where cards, PayPal and online banking work as designed.
• Identity and two factors. A state-licensed book verifies who you are and, in New Jersey, must use multi-factor authentication on every account; keep the account in your own name and withdraw to an account in the same name.
• Withdraw by online banking or PayPal. Real-time bank payouts arrive in seconds where the operator offers them, PayPal’s instant transfer in minutes for 1.75%, a Visa Direct credit to a debit card within the 30 minutes Visa requires of US issuers.
• Keep records for the IRS. Winnings are taxable, W-2G forms go out from $2,000, 24% is withheld above $5,000 on qualifying wins, and from the 2026 tax year only 90% of your losses can be set against them, and only if you itemise.