Whether you’re doing your weekly shop via one of the big supermarkets’ websites, ordering something from the likes of Amazon or simply just buying yourself something nice as a treat, you’ll no doubt have noticed that transactions online typically require the use of a debit card or an eWallet. That is also the case with many online betting companies, though there are some that accept cash.
There are different ways to pay with cash, with the most obvious being to attend your local high street bookmaker and take out one of their schemes that allows you to pay cash into your online account. Even if your bookie of choice doesn’t have a high street shop, there are options such as using vouchers or pre-paid cards to get your cash into your online account.
If you are looking for how to claim betting shop winnings online then head over to our dedicated page.
Why Use Cash To Bet Online?
There are a whole host of reasons why someone might wish to use cash to pay for their bets. Perhaps they are from a puritanical family, for example, and don’t wish transactions to betting firms showing up on their bank statements. Maybe they don’t trust banks and have decided not to have a bank account, preferring to do all transactions in real money.
It’s also not out of the realms of the possible that someone might have a certain amount of money that they’re willing to gamble with and they have that money in cash. This allows them to keep a tight reign on how much they’re betting, so they need to be able to pay cash into their betting account rather than simply use a debit card, which they might lose control of.
There’s also the fact that many older bettors are simply used to dealing with cash. Don’t forget that the first online bet wasn’t processed until 1996, and it took plenty of time for the idea of online betting to grow after that. Online bookies weren’t really a thing back then, and even the sites that did exist were very primitive, and the vast majority of punters went to high street bookies to place their wagers.
Getting out of the established routine isn’t an easy thing do.
What Are The Options
Regardless of the reasons why someone might want to use cash for their betting, the simple fact is that many people wish to do exactly that. That’s why betting companies that can offer them the opportunity to do it will do their best to make sure that it happens. Let’s start off by looking at the companies with shops on the high street that offer this service:
William Hill – Plus
William Hill is one of the best known betting companies in the United Kingdom, offering decades worth of experience. They are a recognisable brand and they have shops in most cities and towns across the country. That’s why they’re so beloved of people that like to use cash to pay for their online gambling transactions, with the Plus card allowing just that.
There are numerous benefits to taking out a Plus card with William Hill, but the main one is that you can link your online account to the one that you have in-store. This means that you can pay cash into the online account from within a William Hill shop, then spend it on your computer when you get home. but it also means that you can take advantage of promotions and deals usually aimed at online customers.
Betfred
The Done brothers of Greater Manchester have always taken something of a no-frills approach to betting. It’s the same with the ability to pay cash into your online account that they offer in their high street stores. They’ve decided to forgo the need for it to have a fancy name and instead simply refer to it as their Cash In Store scheme. Imaginative.
In truth, it’s something of an afterthought from the high street bookmaker, seemingly responding to the market rather than offering it because they want to. Regardless, you can pay money into your online account in store and then withdraw winnings in store if you wish to. The latter is limited to £250 a day, unless you contact the shop with 24 hours notice to take out more.
Coral – Coral Connect
Whereas Betfred’s ability to pay money into your online account in store feels like a response to the rest of the market, Coral’s is very well thought out. Or should I say, was.
In 2023, Coral changed the way the Connect card could be used, so that depositing and withdrawing in cash was no longer allowed. In fact, no kind of transactions can be done using the Connect card anymore, as it has been turned into a rewards card only.
It’s a shame, because Coral Connect used to pretty much be a one-stop shop for your betting needs, combining your balance and your bets regardless of where you placed them.
You could deposit money in store, withdraw it in store, place a bet on the phone, track it through your online account, watch it play out in one of their shops or even combine all of these options. With over 1,500 stores on the high streets of Britain, the Connect Card was a brilliant betting accompaniment. Not anymore though.
Ladbrokes – The Grid
Ladbrokes and Coral are both owned by the same parent company, Entain, so it’s not too much of a shock to see that Ladbrokes changed their store card, The Grid, in the exact same way as Coral. It is now chiefly a reward card.
Before this change, they both offered a similar service to one another. You could pay money into your online account by heading into one of the 1,800 or so Ladbrokes shops on UK high streets, or you could place a bet online and then go into a shop to collect your winnings.
You could even use your mobile phone to scan your betting slip when you had placed a wager in a shop and then track your bets via the Ladbrokes app. This included the ability to Cash Out a bet that you had placed in a shop. The ability to deposit cash into your online Ladbrokes account by popping into a high street store was the key factor of the Grid, but you can’t do that anymore.
Paddy Power – Cash Card PPlus
As with pretty much every service that a bookmaker offers, they’re always trying to find ways to outdo each other. In the case of Paddy Power’s Cash Card PPlus, the Irish bookie allows you to use the pre-paid credit card to pay for real life transactions using your betting account balance. It takes away the faff of having to withdraw your funds before making a purchase.
You can also use it to pay money into your online account, of course, which is the whole point of this page. It’s a bit fiddly, especially since the use of credit cards to add funds to accounts was banned, but Paddy Power are a clever lot and know what they’re doing. Face-to-face shop transactions, online shopping and ATM withdrawals are all possible with the PPlus card.
There is also the Play Card, which not only allows you to deposit and withdraw in shops but also deposit via any retailer displaying the PayPoint symbol.
Betfair
Betfair don’t have actual high street shops, but they do have an agreement with Paddy Power to allow customers to pay cash funds into their Betfair accounts that has been in place since the two companies merged. This is obviously ideal for people who like to bet on the Exchange and use Betfair as their main Exchange provider.
It’s worth pointing out that Betfair’s attempt at doing things is a tad more half-hearted than others. You can pay money into your online account in a Paddy Power shop, for example, but you can’t withdraw it. It’s an odds distinction to make, which may well disappoint some people, but really getting cash into your account is going to be more important for most than getting it out.
BoyleSports – BoyleXtra
Paddy Power aren’t the only company that started in Ireland before moving further afield. BoyleSports is another export of the Emerald Isle and BoyleXtra is their scheme that allows you to bet how and when you’d like to. It lets you take advantage of offers that would normally be exclusive to online customers, even if you’re betting in shop.
With more than 300 shops in the UK and Ireland, BoyleSports might not be as prolific as some of the other major high street bookmakers but they’re still popular enough to make it worth considering. You can pay into your online balance in cash in shops and even use your online balance to pay for bets you’re placing in-store, which is ideal.
PaySafeCard Is Another Cash Option
There are other options available to people who wish to deposit cash into their online betting accounts. That makes sense, of course, given that there are far more betting companies that don’t have a high street shop than those that do. The best way of doing it is by using pre-paid cards and voucher systems, which are available via a number of schemes.
One of the best and most commonly found is the PayPoint symbol, which is often found at Post Offices, newsagents and corner shops. They will offer you the ability to use your cash to buy vouchers for the likes of PaySafeCards, which can then be used to put credit on to your balance with most online bookies. It may not be flawless, but it’s decent enough.
Things To Bear In Mind When Betting In Cash
There are a number of things that you should think about when it comes to the world of cash betting. For starters, cash is the least secure form of payment that you could choose to use. This is quite obvious when you think about it, given that there’s no way that you can trace cash if it is stolen from you before you’ve had the ability to deposit it into your betting account.
The same isn’t quite true with the likes of PaySafeCard, though. Yes, you face an unenviable time moving around with cash in your pockets, but once you’re actually converted that into a PaySafeCard you’re generally OK as long as you don’t lose the voucher itself. If those vouchers get stolen and you have a registered account known as a My PaySafeCard account (where you can store voucher codes) then you can cancel them and you’ll be sent some new ones, which is ideal.
There’s also the fact that some companies will charge fees for their services. It’s important to point out that most don’t, but it wouldn’t be a shock if you were charged a small fee to deposit or withdraw some funds or to use a pre-paid card for something like a foreign exchange withdrawal. Just make sure you look at the small print.
Many operators also don’t allow withdrawals via PaySafeCard, so in this instance you would still need another banking option (such as a registered debit card) to withdraw. A few betting sites do allow PaySafeCard withdrawals, however, if they are registered as an operator that can generate its own codes that can then be stored in a My PaySafeCard account.
The other thing that is important to remember is that shops will have both a minimum deposit and a minimum withdrawal. This isn’t always easy to outline, given that there’ll be a different minimum and maximum for each depending on the shop. William Hill, for example, have a minimum deposit and withdraw amount of £10, with a maximum withdrawal of £5,000 (although bigger withdrawals can often be arranged by contacting in advance).