Entropay is a UK registered company and had been in operation since 2002. They are essentially an e-wallet but a more appropriate way of referring to them would be as a pre paid service. The service is available around the world, but none more so than the UK and parts of Asia.
It works by essentially giving you a pre paid Visa card to make deposits and withdrawals to gambling sites. Instead of having the Visa card to hand, you have a copy that’s available online where you can take your 16-digit card number along with your pin to make purchases and also deposits online.
One of the main advantages to using something like Entropay is that you can do so relatively anonymously. That being said, you still need to provide your details when you sign up to Entropay, but when you register with your bookmaker your account details wont be stored and the only funds that you can access will be the ones that you have pre-loaded yourself. This means that should anything go wrong (fraud), the account will only be susceptible to the money that’s already in there and have no links to your bank account.
Entropay Has Closed
Please note: Entropay shut down in 2019 and is no longer available.We’ve seen players in countries such as China, India, Indonesia and Malaysia use Entropay with great success. These countries are notoriously hard to deposit money into gambling sites, but this allows them to use the virtual pre loaded Visa card to make their transaction much smoother.
The Fees Involved
The downsides of the card come in the form of the fees that are charged. We realise that all of these types of payment processes come at a price, but Entropay feels more like a premium than some of their competitors. Whilst opening account is free and easy, the sting in the tail comes from the 4.95% fee that you get charged to load your card. They are one of fairly few that charge a percentage of the total amount meaning that if you are a higher roller, this number could start to get ridiculous, especially bearing in mind that this is charged for every deposit onto your card that you make.
On top of that, you will get charged 1.95% for everything that you receive into your account from the bookmaker. It’s almost like a double whammy in terms of paying to have your own money then paying again to receive any winnings or withdrawals. You will be charged a 2% fee for any foreign exchanges and also $6 for every withdrawal to debit cards. For anyone frequently using this payment method, over the course of the year, the fees that you pay could be astronomical.
How to Deposit Using Entropay
Depositing with Entropay is very much the same as if you were using your Visa debit card. First thing, you will need to have the 16-digit card number, expiry date and card security number to hand.
Next you will be asked to enter these details along with how much you intend to deposit. You may be required to enter your betting account password again but as long as funds are already in your Entropay account, then it should be a pretty instantaneous process.
About Entropay
Entropay is another company who have managed to get a solid foothold within the e-wallet sector. Like a lot of their competitors, they have seen the gambling industry as a key road to their success and are now widely regarded as one of the biggest platforms for these types of transactions.
How It Started
The company was set up in 2002 and is run by Ixaris Systems Limited, based out of the UK. They were formed to try and forge a way for consumers to keep their bank details off gambling sites and in turn, almost have an account exclusively for gambling.
Pre-Paid / Pay As You Go
The process of the company is pretty simple in that their Visa card is pre-paid, which you must top up. It works in much the same way as a pay as you go mobile, in that you load the funds on, use them as you wish and once they are gone, they are gone.
Unlike a traditional debit card, you can’t go overdrawn and you can only spend what’s in your account. As Entropay needed to process these transactions via a bank, they did so using the Bank of Valletta, Transact Payments Limited and IDT Financial Services, all fully licensed by VISA Europe.