Interwetten reinstates PayPal in Germany
Operator thought to have proved to PayPal that deposits will only be used for sports betting rather than casino
Interwetten has reinstated PayPal as a payments option for German betting customers just months after the provider bowed to political pressure and turned off German gambling partners.
The operator said it was “one of the few” betting companies able to offer PayPal, having turned the method off in October, then back on from 11 December.
PayPal was told to stop facilitating online casino transactions in Germany in June this year, via a cease and desist letter from the German state of Lower Saxony.
However, due to the difficulty in identifying whether deposits were to be used for betting or casino, the provider essentially turned off all gambling partners.
Interwetten did not clarify the exact reason it was allowed to reinstate PayPal but a source suggested the firm had found a way to ensure PayPal was only used for betting – perhaps via a separation of wallets.
Dominik Beier, speaker of the board at Interwetten, said: “We want to continue to grow and offer our customers in Germany the best available product on the market.
“This makes it even more important that we can also offer PayPal as their most popular payment method.”
LeoVegas said in November the switch-off of PayPal had cost it “20-30%” of its revenues from the market.
Group CEO Gustaf Hagman said the drop-off was relatively unique because the German market had a player base “quite dedicated to a specific payment provider”.