Banking Options At 18+ Poker Sites
If you’re thinking about joining an 18 and up offshore poker site, the first thing you’ve got to do is make sure you pick a reputable operator. We’ve got plenty of those listed here, so that should be pretty simple. However, the second thing is almost as important: You need to make sure your poker bank options are actually feasible.
Fortunately, that’s also easy, because the banking options at the 18+ poker sites we cover are very friendly to the younger generation of players. Cash has gone the way of the dodo, and for the most part, 18-20-year-old players use credit and crypto for just about everything. While these sites won’t take things like PayPal or Apple Pay for US customers, they do accept standard credit/debit cards, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, and a host of other less common deposit and withdrawal methods.
To find out which banking method is right for 18 and up poker players, this page has all the information you need to make the most informed decision about how push your fat stack of chips all in.
Best Online Poker Rooms In 2024 With Easy Banking Options For 18 And Up Players
US Online Gambling Banking Laws
Most 18-year-olds have credit or debit cards, and these are both viable ways to move money to your offshore poker site of choice. That said, credit/debit transactions are sometimes hit or miss with these sites, thanks to a pesky US banking restriction called the UIGEA (2006).
While poker gambling laws don’t target 18+ poker players in any way, it does occasionally prevent banks from processing credit- and debit-based payments to these overseas operators. This can cause your card to be rejected, and though it won’t put a hold on your card or deactivate it, it will slow down your ability to play real money poker over the Internet. In the age of mobile convenience, that’s obviously a problem.
Luckily, credit and debit cards aren’t the only ways to fund your 18 and up online poker experience, and there are plenty of reliable alternatives that can get you hitting the digital felts – and feeling those digital feels – faster than ever.
Best Banking Options For Under 21 Poker Players
The following poker deposit and withdrawal options are available to 18 and up players at all the major offshore poker rooms listed here, and we’ve ordered them according to their popularity and benefits.
Bitcoin (BTC) is without question the top way to fund your online poker account, with other cryptos also being viable. However, not everyone is on the cryptocurrency bandwagon, so more traditional banking methods are also listed.
Most Popular 18+ Poker Deposit Methods In 2024
- Bitcoin – Bitcoin (BTC) is the most popular and most valuable way to fund your 18 and up poker account. This is because the cryptocurrency is extremely secure (some call it “unhackable”), comes with no added fees of any kind, processes nearly instantly, has the biggest limits, and offers the only same-day payouts from offshore poker rooms. Additionally, Bitcoin bonuses are often higher than standard deposit bonuses, which can earn you more free cash to play the poker games you love.
- Bitcoin Cash – Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is an offshoot of Bitcoin that most online poker rooms accept. As with BTC, BCH has the same general benefits, include zero processing fees and same-day payouts. Generally, all supported cryptocurrencies come with these perks, but we still advise using Bitcoin proper, as it’s the gold standard not just for offshore under 21 poker, but for global transactions in general.
- Zelle – Zelle isn’t a form of currency in and of itself, but it’s something that anyone aged 18 and up probably has access to. This is because – if you have a bank account in the US – you likely have Zelle Pay built into your online bank or mobile banking app. Zelle is a peer-to-peer instant pay service akin to PayPal, and while you can’t use it to fund your 18+ poker room activities directly, you can use Zelle to purchase BTC, which you can then use for loading up your gambling account. The Zelle-to-Bitcoin process goes through a secure exchange called LocalBitcoins, and you can read about this process in depth at our Zelle Deposits page.
- Poker Vouchers - Vouchers are used by several of the best 18 and up online poker rooms to assist players in making deposits and claiming withdrawals. Vouchers, also called Player Transfers at some sites, let an individual player buy all or part of another player's account balance to deposit into their own accounts. Online poker voucher codes can be bought or sold anywhere and through any means, as they are secure private transactions (though we recommend only using your site's official Community portal listings). This means that gambling voucher buyers can effectively deposit with PayPal, Venmo, Cash App, Apple Pay, Google Pay, etc., while sellers can claim same-day payouts via the same P2P instant-pay services.
- Credit/Debit – Most offshore poker sites for 18 and up players accept credit and debit cards. Usually, these are limited to Visa and Mastercard, though some operators will also take American Express and even Discover. Unfortunately, while credit cards and debit cards process instantly, they don’t always work (due to the UIGEA law), and they come with poker deposit fees ranging from 3.5% to 10%. We think Bitcoin is the much better deal, but if you don’t have any crypto, then credit/debit is the next best thing.
18+ Poker Withdrawal Options
When it comes to withdrawals, the best option for 18+ poker players is to use Bitcoin. Remember, BTC (and other cryptocurrency) is the only way to get same-day withdrawals, and Bitcoin transfers come with high limits and no added fees. When you win the pot, you want to keep it all, right?
The only way to request a withdrawal using Bitcoin or another cryptocurrency is to first fund your account using the form of crypto you prefer. In other words, you cannot fund your account with your Visa and then request a payout using Bitcoin.
Still, crypto isn’t for everyone. Most offshore poker rooms offer several other payout options, including bank wires, courier checks, and the like. However, these alternative methods can be cost-prohibitive and take longer. We cover the pros and cons of these (mostly cons, frankly) in the section below.
Online Poker Same Day Payouts
We mentioned this above, but it bears repeating: The only way you can get same-day payouts from legal offshore poker sites is to use Bitcoin or another cryptocurrency that the site supports (like Ethereum, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ripple, etc.).
Because Bitcoin is decentralized, it isn't controlled by any governments or banks, and transfers are allowed to go through no matter where you are. Thus, sites operating from overseas have no trouble sending you your poker winnings via Bitcoin, though many of them will limit how often you can request these (usually 2-3 times per week). For sheer convenience and the fastest way to claim your poker pot, BTC is unbeatable, see?
Other Poker Banking Options For 18 And Up Players
There are several other ways to fund your 18+ poker account at most sites. These are more traditional than the above-recommended avenues, and they include things like bank wires, money orders, person-to-person payments (i.e. Western Union, MoneyGram), and even cashier’s checks.
However, these options – while perfectly viable – aren’t always the best for 18 and up players for a few reasons. First, they all come with comparatively large transfer fees, which eat into your poker payouts. Second, you typically have to wait 3-5 days for these transactions to clear. Finally, withdrawals through these poker banking methods can take even longer, and they sometimes come with more fees and limits that can really cut into your profit margin.
For high rollers, poker sharks, and big ol’ whales, bank wires and the like might be just the James Bond thing. For those of us living in the real connected world of the 21st century, however, most of the other options above are more convenient for under 21 players.
The exception here, and our favorite non-Bitcoin withdrawal method, is to use courier checks. This is because courier checks arrive in about a week on average, and most 18+ poker sites will let players request no-fee check payouts once or twice a month. If you want to keep all of your poker winnings and aren't interested in using BTC or other cryptocurrencies, courier checks are absolutely the way to go.
18+ Poker Site Bonus Options
Most sites offer poker bonuses for new and returning members. One of the most popular in the industry, for example, is the Bovada bonus. This requires a Bovada poker bonus code, which you can find on the website itself.
Similarly, the majority of offshore operators employ the same bonus poker strategy. If you sign up at Ignition Casino, you’ll need to put in your Ignition poker bonus code, and if you join BetOnline, you’ll have to enter the BetOnline poker bonus code. This is standard practice in the industry, and they use codes so you have to actively opt-in to these bonuses.
However, there is no reason not to accept online poker bonuses, as they’re the best casino bonuses available. These don’t come with any rollover or playthrough requirements, for example, which is the standard for all other casino games at online poker sites.
Instead, poker bonuses are released to you in increments as free cash, and you earn them by accruing comp points by playing poker at your site of choice. Every time you reach a specific point threshold, the operator releases a portion of your bonus – usually $5 or so – into your account with no strings attached.
Poker bonuses are the only gambling bonus options we can recommend for all players no matter what, as they are literal free money to pad your bankroll.
18+ Poker Banking FAQs
Most banks offer under 21 bank account options to their young adult clientele, as 18 is the legal age of adulthood in the US.
Those younger than 18 will typically only be able to open bank accounts with their parents or guardians on the account, but then again, you can’t gamble under 18, so funding a poker account shouldn’t even be on a youngster’s radar.