PayPal is among the pioneers in online payments systems, and is thought to be still the largest such company in the world. PayPal is based in the United States. In 2002, EBay acquired the company. For several years after its founding in 1998, it provided the preeminent method of transferring funds to gaming establishments. But when Congress forbade US companies to participate in such activities, PayPal departed the sector in a high-profile series of pronouncements. Since then, direct payments into or out of gambling sites via PayPal have not been possible.

Some gamers have written about an “indirect” method, which consists essentially of taking the money out of PayPal and putting it into a different form so that funding will occur. That is a misnomer. It is not just “indirect”; it is totally giving up on PayPal and using some other form of payment. PayPal continues its public stance against facilitating transactions involving gaming websites.

Recently a few gamers have noted that PayPal has permitted transfers into a Malta-based bingo site when the players are clearly outside the reach of US law. They attribute it to the “hard times” that PayPal has suffered because of the economic downturn and the rise of so many new e-payment systems in countries other than the moralistic US. This cannot be true. In fact, PayPal is prospering as e-commerce thrives and grows. A claim that shunning gamblers has hurt PayPal is simply confusing hope with belief.

California-based PayPal has too much to lose in serving gamblers in defiance of Congress and the Department of Justice. If the law is changed, as well it might one day, PayPal will be back. Until then, other payment services will just have to take up the slack.