Skrill vs. PayPal: How to Choose a Casino Payment Method
When it comes to playing at online casinos, there are a lot of options available to players. Whether it's choosing mobile or desktop, iOS or Android, or the hundreds of other choices.
Your payment method is just another choice to make, or to put it another way: "Which payment method should I use to deposit or withdraw money?"
The fact is, there are numerous payment methods offered at online casinos' banking category, with arguably the top two e-wallets being Skrill and PayPal.
They are both popular, fast, and convenient so which should you choose?
Let's dive into both services and discover the better option.
| Payment method | Skrill | PayPal | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Available currencies | 41 | 25 | |
| Deposit fees | Bank Transfer: Free | Bank Transfer: Free | |
| Credit Card: 1.90% | Credit Card: between 2.90% and 7.40% + additional fees | ||
| Withdraw fees | Bank Transfer: 3.95 | Bank Transfer: free | |
| Cashback and Promotions | Up to 100 EUR Bonus after becoming a Skrill VIP member | None |
Important Notice: UK Players Warning
Please keep in mind that UK players cannot fund e-wallet with credit cards if they intend to play real money gambling games.
This restriction applies to both PayPal and Skrill.
Using PayPal and Skrill at an Online Casino
What is Paypal?
PayPal is one of the biggest online financial services that allows you to make personal and commercial payments.
Now it’s hard to find a person who hasn’t used PayPal at some point while paying for online purchases.
Just like Skrill, PayPal offers secure and fast payments. PayPal is free to use as long as you don’t need to pay in another currency. Also, fees can be applied when you receive money to your account.
What is Skrill?
Skrill, owned and operated by Skrill Limited company in the UK, is an e-commerce service that allows you safely transfer money.
What makes Skrill easy to use is that for money transferring you only need an e-mail address and password.
Skrill payments are fast and most importantly secure as you only have to provide your personal details. Besides Skrill, no one can see your personal information giving you anonymity while you play at any online casino.
The simple way of depositing money and its security makes Skrill one of the top choices among online casinos. In truth, now it’s hard to find one that doesn’t offer Skrill as one of the payment options.
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Comparing PayPal and Skrill for Online Casino Payments
Now that you understand a bit more about these payment methods, let's do a direct comparison of the services they both offer. Here's how we'll compare the two:
Availability and Acceptance
PayPal is more popular than Skrill in most measurable ways.
PayPal is just two years older than Skrill (1999 vs. 2001), yet has market dominance.
Whether you are buying a product from eBay, donating to Wikipedia, or simply carrying out transactions, PayPal has always been the first choice.
However, the online gambling market doesn't show much love for PayPal. The number of online casinos accepting PayPal is a handful when compared to other industries.
Despite the inferiority, Skrill is found in the better percentage of online casinos. Online casinos accepting electronic payments will likely accept Skrill over PayPal.
And there is a valid reason why online casinos prefer Skrill over PayPal.
Everything depends on the currency you play with. For example, Paypal offers 25 currencies to deposit and withdraw your money, while Skrill ensures that you can receive and pay money in 41 currencies.
This is not the only reason why Skrill is a better payment service than PayPal.
Skrill also offers four different currency accounts you can add to one Skrill account. This means that you can store your money in your preferred currencies without worrying about currency exchange rates.
Compared to Skrill, PayPal offers only two accounts - one for personal use and one for business, which don't have multiple currencies and have no advantages for online casino players.
To make casino games available for players in various countries, online casinos tend to prioritize Skrill. If you come from a country which has its own local currency, a Skrill payment might be a better option for you.
To summarize, Skrill is more accepted in the gambling world.
Winner: Skrill
Registration and Verification
Registering on both Skrill and PayPal is free and relatively easy.
You just have to input your details correctly and hit the action button. These details range from personal to banking information.
Once registered, you have to verify your account. The verification process of each service is different but focused on the same point: to verify your identity and connect your banking information.
Skrill takes about 24 hours to verify your account, while PayPal might take up to two days.
Winner: Skrill
Transaction Fees and Withdrawals
The main point(s) when considering any payment service is making a deposit to your account and receiving your winnings. Both PayPal and Skrill have zero fees on deposit to your preferred online casino.
As expected, withdrawal prompts the transaction fees, so let's take a look at both differently. Skrill charges 3.95 EUR of your total withdrawal, while PayPal will cut 2.9% of your total withdrawal along with $0.30 USD.
Skrill also charges 1.9% when you transfer money between two or more accounts. PayPal, on the other hand, charges nothing at all.
Winner: PayPal
Transaction Processing Times
The processing time of transactions is very important for choosing the better e-wallet. Skrill takes 24 hours at most to process your withdrawal into your account.
Currently, PayPal processes payment transactions faster, and in fact, you can get your withdrawal immediately while some get theirs in just two hours. To top it off, PayPal will process your transaction faster if you have received money from the online casino via PayPal before.
They also track your connection. So, if you have received money using a broadband network before, they pay your money faster.
Winner: PayPal
VIP Benefits and Extra Perks
Skrill gives you a VIP treatment when you spend a lot of money in the quarter of a year. With the VIP programme, you are entitled to special promotions, lower fees, extra security, and 24/7 dedicated support.
Spending over €6,000 will activate the Bronze programme while spending €15,000 activates the Silver programme. Spending €45,000 or €90,000 will activate Gold and Diamond programme respectively.
Each programme offers a different set of perks but, of course, it is a hierarchy.
PayPal, on the other hand, doesn't offer a VIP loyalty programme but you can gain points by using PayPal MasterCard to make payments online.
The points gained can be redeemed for gift and prize cards, cash-back, merchandise (housewares, electronics, etc.), and travel vouchers to ease your traveling experience and can be used for flights, car rentals, and hotels.
Winner: Skrill
Bonuses and Promotions
There's little better than getting a bonus for using a service, especially when you might use this service regardless.
Bonuses are available according to the payment method you choose. The majority of online casinos give you bonuses when you deposit via a specific method. As a result, choosing a "favored" method is more reasonable and highly recommended.
From the onset, big online casinos offer bonuses for account holders using any payment method apart from Neteller and Skrill. You can verify this yourself by reading the full details of the bonuses offered by the online casino you are using, especially if it's a large casino site. Many larger online casinos do this for a reason we don't understand yet.
Those online casinos accepting a PayPal payment favors PayPal deposits. Yet, some online casinos offer bonuses for account holders using Skrill or Neteller only in comparison, although these tend to be smaller casino sites.
Winner: Tie
Paypal vs. Skrill: The PokerNews Verdict
By now, you should know the decision depends entirely on your preferences and needs. Both have their pros and cons, and beat their counterpart on one aspect or another.
But the truth is simple: it depends on you!
If you like the VIP programme, Skrill is a good shot. If you want to play at large online casinos, PayPal is your best bet.
The pros and cons are mentioned throughout this article. It boils down to you and you alone. Know what you want, need and prefer, and pick the best between Skrill and PayPal.
Read the full guide to find out which payment methods can be used when playing at an online casino.
Read moreThis article was originally published in November 2017, it was last updated in December 2023.
