Pay Your Bookie and Gambling Debts with PayPal (but not if you're American)

[mandy]

European customers of UK based betting exchange Betfair will be able to make payments using PayPal, a global leader in online payments, following a deal between the two businesses Betfair reported in a statement on Monday.

The arrangement will enable Betfair users living in the UK and the other European Union countries to use PayPal to make secure and simple payments to each other.  The PayPal service will be fully integrated with the account management section of the Betfair site so its customers will be able to pay in and withdraw funds from their Betfair account in real time...

Betfair is a popular, highly regarded, regulated and reputable online gaming site...

full article: http://www.thoroughbrednews.co.nz/intern...p?id=22527&page_no=0&trainer_id=0&stud_id=0

[Anita]

THAT is toooooo funny!  I stole the info you provided and posted it.  There seems to be a PayPal cheerleader on the Stores Board that will love this info.

[mandy]

Betfair was just the start.  PayPal reportedly plans to actively seek the business of other online gambling and casino  firms too.

.....Online casino and sportsbook operators and players in Europe and the UK will be delighted by the news that Paypal will  again facilitate gambling transactions. Betfair, the world's leading betting exchange, announced the integration of Paypal as a payment facility...

Paypal used to be the leading processor of online gambling transactions, but after its takeover by eBay two years ago stopped the processing of gaming transactions completely. This opened the door for Neteller, who built a very successful business as the world's largest processor of gambling transactions.

Paypal is now to be fully integrated with Betfair again, and rumours are that Paypal will allow the processing of transaction by other UK licensed operators very soon.

full article: http://www.gambling911.com/032006Bnews.html

[xppman]

More evidence PayFraud's bottom line is hurting at the hands of feebay. 

[mandy]

A related editorial:

EBAY ONLINE GAMBLING HYPOCRISY

Whilst PayPal tries to get back into the European online gambling business, it's parent applauds US banning attempts

What must surely rate as one of the most flagrant examples of hypocrisy (unless the right hand knows not what the left is doing) came to notice this week when the eBay executive in charge of federal government relations, Brian Bieron wrote congratulating Rep. Bob Goodlatte on his proposed legislation aimed at hamstringing the online gambling industry.

Hypocritical, because eBay subsidiary PayPal has recently been trying to generate e-cash business in Europe from the industry...

full article: http://www.online-casinos.com/news/news2139.asp

[mandy]

...of online gambling.

Rep. Bob Goodlatte is in the process of pushing through Congress a bill that would "ban" Internet gambling. I've previously explained why the bill is bad public policy.

But since that column, it has come to light that online auction giant eBay has thrown its support behind Goodlatte's efforts. Why would an Internet company open its arms to congressional regulation of the Internet?

Some speculate that eBay is attempting to win favor with Goodlatte, who also happens to sit on the Congressional Internet Caucus. There's probably some truth to that. But there's another, more likely explanation for eBay selling out the e-commerce world: Good, old-fashioned protectionism...

full article: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,198610,00.html

[stardust]

Unbelieveable corporate protectionism.  Unbelievable hypocracy.

[amy]

Today, Thiel and Levchin's vision for PayPal is long dead.

Yes it is...

eBay's entire reason for supporting the bill in Congress is to wipe out competing payment services in the US market:

If banks and other financial institutions are going to be responsible for policing what their customers do online, as will happen should Goodlatte's bill become law, it's safe to assume that they'll comply by simply banning all transactions with offshore payment services.

Which means that Goodlatte's bill's main effect will be to shield PayPal, a domestic company, from foreign competitors (foreign competitors that, ironically, are doing exactly what PayPal's founders envisioned).

and the hypocrisy:

The funny thing is, even as eBay has joined Rep. Goodlatte's moral crusade against gambling, the company's overseas operations are moving into the gaming business.

I like this quote:

It's likely that a good percentage of those 12 million active, online users also patronize eBay. I wonder what they'd think if they knew that eBay has called for them to be arrested and prosecuted?

[mandy]

A blog article on eBay's hypocritical stance on gambling in the US.  The comments by various people are humorous:

Ebay anti-gambling by Donald Duck

Could you imagine if the government make these online flea markets sites illegal and totally taxable...

It's all Gambling by Mad Max

Every time you use ebay & paypal you are Gambling!

Ebay anti-gambling by MD

Half the time buying someones used crap on ebay is quite the gamble...

Ebay needs a domain name change to FLEABAY...

full article and all the comments: http://techdirt.com/articles/20060608/1058237.shtml