Players who want to wager with real money at online casinos have to deposit funds. There are many options available to the players and a judicious choice needs to be made. Most of the options are based on credit cards. Credit cards are used by everyone for off-line and online purchases and using them at online casinos is a natural extension. Credit cards can be used directly to fund online casino accounts or can be used to fund electronic wallets, from which funds can be transferred to online casinos.

Credit cards have advantages and disadvantages, but a critical disadvantage for many online casino players is that they enable wagering on credit. Players can wager with money not in their bank accounts using credit cards and settle the credit card bill later. This can tempt players to wager more than they can afford to and in the worst case it can compel them to chase losses. Therefore players with such tendencies are strongly advised not to use credit cards to fund their online casino accounts.

Fortunately for such players there are a number of prepaid deposit options. One of them is the debit card. Operationally the debit card functions in the same manner as the credit card but it is issued only against funds the player has in the bank account. Hence the player has already earned the money he is using for wagering at online casinos and is not wagering with borrowed money. This will automatically inculcate the required caution into his wagering habits. But the debit card is subject to some of the disadvantages of credit cards. Debit cards are issued by banks and each transaction has to be authorized by the bank. In countries where the legality of online gambling has not been established some banks may reject transactions with online casinos. Even if this is not the case there will be a complete record with the bank as to the deposits to online casinos.

A better prepaid option is the prepaid voucher issued by online payment solutions providers like Ukash and Paysafecard. These vouchers are instruments for one time use. If the player wants to deposit $100 at an online casino he can buy a voucher worth $100. The biggest advantage is that this voucher can be purchased for cash at a retail outlet near the player’s home. Hence there is absolutely no trail left of the online casino transactions outside the online casino. Ukash vouchers are sold at tens of thousands of retail outlets in the countries where it operates. Players just need to enter their home address at the Ukash web site and the address of the nearest retail outlet within walking distance will appear on the screen.

Once the player has the voucher the process is very simple. The player logs onto the online casino, selects Ukash as the deposit option and enters the code printed on the voucher. The code automatically credits the player’s account with the voucher amount. Once used for depositing, the voucher cannot be deployed again and therefore all security concerns are addressed. Players who do not want to make the trip to the retail outlet can purchase these prepaid vouchers online. They would need to employ some of the other online payment mechanisms for this. But since these prepaid vouchers can be used for making a number of different online purchases, merely procuring a voucher cannot be a link to online casino wagering.