32Red latest accepted as PayPal opens up to online gambing

32Red has been accepted by PayPal.

The casino site joins PartyGaming, Paddy Power and 888 in the small but growing number of operators approved by the online payment giant, despite PayPal having stopped accepting egaming transactions in 2002 when it was acquired by eBay, promising to fine service users for employing it for egaming transactions.

PayPal banned gaming transactions in 2002 because it feared repercussions from America’s post September-11 laws to combat money laundering – fears which in 2003 proved justified when it was forced to pay $10m to settle allegations that it provided services to online gambling merchants.

However subsequent relaxation of the policy means PayPal is now believed to have contracts with as many as 75 online gambling businesses.

32Red operations director Pat Harrison said: “I don’t know where the caution came from but I think it was the company being mindful of American regulation. But I believe the (UK) Gambling Act and the European Union directive on money laundering have acted as a security blanket, and that PayPal is far more open to gaming companies than it used to be.”

Harrison said that he believes PayPal began softening its stance on egaming approximately three years ago, but that its due diligence requirements for accepting egaming companies are tough.

“This isn’t something that every operator can get their hands on because the due diligence process is pretty stringent. Getting approved was one of the most onerous pieces of due diligence that our business has ever been through.”

PayPal UK refused to comment.

For more on this topic, see our PayPal and egaming feature and our opinion piece on why PayPal should be less sniffy.

In other 32Red news, the site recently came 13^th place in a ranking of the 20 most visible casino sites to American internet users.