What to Know Before Getting Started
Starting a New Business?
Selecting a credit card processor is often more complicated than most people expect. How much should you be paying in fees? Should you lease or buy equipment? Should you be locked into a service agreement for anything length of time? These considerations and several others are imporant to understand before signing up with any merchant account provider. Mistakes are easily made and can be very costly to your business. Along with seeing our top choices for payment services below, be sure to checkout this post to avoid common traps in the merchant services industry.
Considerations For Current Business Owners
Changing merchant accounts can be an expensive, complicated, and time consuming process. Are you really going to save as much as promised? Do you need to buy to new equipment or sign new lease agreements? Will there be other less accountable costs such as those associated with employee retraining? Before selecting one of our choices below, you may want to consider renegotiating your fees with your current payment processing vendors using the help of a contingency-compensated consultant. It can result in a dramatic decrease in costs without the pains of switching. In some cases business owner have also obtained substantial refunds of prior overcharges along with saving thousands in future processing costs. See this post to learn more about this little-known alternative to changing merchant account provider.
Online gaming and gambling exists in a legal gray area, with some states taking action to prohibit it and others taking a more lenient stance. For this reason, online gambling is considered a high risk industry, but that doesn’t necessarily make it criminal. If you run an online casino or internet gambling business in the U.S. or EU, you may still be able to process credit card payments through a high risk merchant account provider. High risk merchant accounts tend to come with higher rates and fees, but they can still provide helpful customer support and products to help streamline your e-commerce gaming company. In short, while it may be difficult to find a processor that can serve you, it isn’t completely impossible.
To help you find a credit card processor that can assist your business, we’ve put together the following list of the best merchant accounts for online gambling. The companies on this list offer e-commerce solutions, offshore merchant accounts, marketing tools, and other useful services for operating your online casino. They are also known to provide low-commitment contracts with transparent pricing and quality customer service. To find the right provider for your online gaming site, be sure to research each processor’s products and features and compare pricing and terms.
Note: This list contains providers that are capable of serving online casinos in regions where online gambling is legal. The companies on this list are not recommended for physical casinos. If you are looking for a casino merchant account, see our list of the best merchant accounts for brick-and-mortar casinos.
Our unbiased articles are supported in part by helping you find highly reviewed merchant accounts. You can learn more here.
Why These Merchant Account Providers
eMerchantBroker
eMerchantBroker.com is a Los Angeles, California-based company that offers high risk e-commerce processing solutions including online gambling merchant accounts. The company’s products include ACH processing, an online payment gateway, merchant cash advance, and a chargeback management system to help merchants dispute and resolve chargeback claims. eMerchantBroker.com can provide an offshore merchant account for online gaming sites as long as they are properly licensed and willing to sign a high risk addendum to their contract.
eMerchantBroker.com offers custom pricing for each merchant and maintains a low complaint rate relative to its size and merchant portfolio. Our review of eMerchantBroker gives the company an “A” rating overall and the BBB assigns the company a rating of “A+.”
For more information, see the eMerchantBroker website or call (877) 301-3442.
PaymentCloud
Based in Woodland Hills, California, PaymentCloud is a merchant account provider that specializes in serving high risk business types. The company’s products and services include point-of-sale solutions, mobile phone swipers, an online payment gateway and virtual terminal, EMV-compatible terminals, and merchant cash advances. PaymentCloud is a good option for online gaming sites that may or may not include chance-based games.
PaymentCloud provides a dedicated account rep to all new merchants for the life of the account. The company has not received any negative complaints on consumer forums, and it customizes its pricing according to each merchant’s business type and processing history. The BBB does not maintain a profile for PaymentCloud at this time, but CPO gives the company an “A.”
For more information, visit the PaymentCloud website or call (888) 506-7859.
Host Merchant Services
Host Merchant Services is a Newark, Delaware-based merchant account provider that is able to provide merchant accounts for a large number of high risk business types. The company’s products and services include online marketing tools, an online payment gateway and virtual terminal, gift and loyalty programs, merchant cash advance, and offshore merchant accounts. Host Merchant Services specializes in e-commerce businesses and provides a free website and email address to interested merchants. Host may be able to serve online gambling business that utilize offshore merchant accounts to accept payments.
Host Merchant Services has received only positive feedback on public forums, with most reviewers singling out the company’s customer service for praise. Host offers custom pricing to all of its merchants, but most merchants will enjoy transparent pricing and the ability to cancel service without penalty. The Better Business Bureau gives Host an “A+” rating, and CPO also gives the company an “A+.”
For more information, visit the Host Merchant Services website or call (888) 591-9026.
Other Merchant Account Options
The providers in this section may not have been researched as thoroughly or may lack a quality that prevented them from being listed above. We have listed them here to provide a broader view of potential merchant account options. Are you a decision maker with your company and believe that you should be listed below? Tell us here.
Durango Merchant Services
Durango Merchant Services is a well-established high risk payment processor headquartered in Durango, Colorado. The company has been serving both U.S. and international merchants with an emphasis on difficult-to-place merchant types since 1999. Durango can supply processing for face-to-face, mobile, and e-commerce merchants and offers a wide range of services including an online payment gateway with QuickBooks integration, POS equipment, electronic check processing, and offshore banking partnerships. Durango may be able to assist online gambling businesses on a case-by-case basis.
Durango has received overwhelmingly positive feedback with regard to its sales and support team and offers custom pricing depending on a merchant’s business type. Our review of Durango Merchant Services gives the company an “A+,” and the Better Business Bureau awards Durango an “A+” as well.
For more information, see the Durango Merchant Service website or call (888) 316-1897.
Vantage Payments
Based in Scottsdale, Arizona, Vantage Payments is a merchant account provider that can provide both domestic and offshore merchant accounts for high risk merchant types like online gambling sites. The company’s products and services include point of sale equipment, remote deposit capture, European direct debit, call center services, multi-currency support, web design, and SEO assistance. Vantage Payments is an especially good fit for online gaming companies based in the EU with EU customers.
Vantage Payments currently has a clean complaint record across all review websites, which is an impressive feat for a company specializing in offshore merchant accounts. Our review of Vantage gives the company an “A” rating at this time, while the BBB gives Vantage an “A+.”
For more information, see the Vantage Payments website or call (888) 582-4903.
Instabill
Based in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Instabill is a high risk merchant account provider that is capable of serving international gambling merchants. The company’s products and services for gambling businesses include multiple currency support, offshore banking partners, an online payment gateway, shopping cart integration, and fraud protection. Instabill is a good fit for internet gambling companies that have international customer bases.
Instabill customizes its pricing depending on each merchant’s size, business type, and processing history. The company has earned an “A” rating in our review as well as an “A+” rating with the BBB.
For more information, see the Instabill website.
If your business offers online gambling merchant services, please leave a comment in the comment section below or contact us through our contact page in order to get listed in this article.
About Phillip Parker
Thank you for reading my review. I hope that it has helped you with your research.
Why I'm Qualified to Write About Credit Card Processing and Merchant Account Services
I'm a former credit card processing sales director who left the industry because I didn't like how it takes advantage of small business owners. It feeds like a leech on businesses and thrives by imposing fees that are nearly impossible to comprehend. Seeing a need for change, I left and built this website help business owners better understand the industry, research merchant services providers, and get refunds of excessive merchant account fees. My experience of working "behind the curtain" in the industry, and using that knowledge for good, has resulted in millions of dollars returned to hard-working small business owners as well as enterprise-level companies.
From the time that I starting working in the merchant services industry to when I left to create this website, I've been on the pulse of payments for nearly 15 years. It didn't seem fair to keep this "insider" knowledge to myself. To lift the fog, I've reviewed hundreds of companies, read thousands of user reviews, and learned the pricing tricks of every provider. If you have questions about credit card processing, you can find the answers on this website.
Phillip Parker