Quick Answer
No. Cards should remain the default way US players fund iGaming accounts through 2028, while pay-by-bank on FedNow and RTP grows as a secondary rail that wins payouts first.
Swiss payment data points the same way: debit cards, not a new rail, overtook cash. The bigger threat to card share, as I see it, is wallets rather than raw bank transfers.
Key Points
- Cards should remain the default way US players fund iGaming accounts through 2028, while pay-by-bank on FedNow and RTP grows as a secondary rail that wins payouts first.
- A 2024 study cited in the Federal Reserve's July 2025 FEDS Note found only about 11% of US adults had made even one open banking payment in the prior year.
- Chandana Cherukuri's 2025 review cited the Nilson Report finding that Visa and Mastercard swipe fees reached $111.2 billion in 2024, yet judged that gaming "shows promise but faces barriers."
Cards still fund most US iGaming deposits, while bank payments gain ground on payouts first.
In my reading, payment shifts follow habit before they follow infrastructure. Switzerland makes the point cleanly. A Swiss National Bank payment diary survey of 2,000 adults, reported by Finextra, found debit cards had overtaken cash at physical points of sale, while mobile payment apps already carried almost one in five of those payments. Cards did not need a new rail to win. The challenger rising behind them was an app, not a fresh bank network.
That pattern is why I don't expect FedNow and RTP to flip US iGaming deposits by 2028. What follows is a dated forecast, built from public evidence and open about its gaps, starting with the deposit button players already trust.
No, pay-by-bank will not overtake cards in US iGaming by 2028. I expect FedNow and RTP to make bank payments faster without making them the default deposit method. Appetite is there: a 2024 open banking study cited in the Federal Reserve's 2025 FEDS Note found 72% of Gen Z and 66% of millennials willing to use open banking payments. Willing is not switching. In 2025, most pay-by-bank products still settled over ACH, and the note tied future momentum to instant rails. My bet is narrower: bank rails win payouts first, while cards keep funding the account.
What will matter most for iGaming deposits over the next 12 to 24 months?
Three things: cards holding the deposit default, credit giving ground to debit and bank transfers, and payouts becoming the place where bank rails prove themselves first.
I'd watch these signals in this order. Each one is already visible in public data, and none of them needs cards to collapse for bank rails to grow.
| Prediction | Weak signal | Why it matters | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cards stay the default deposit method, with bank transfers growing beside them, not past them. | ACH transfers and debit and credit card payments both increased substantially by number and value. In Australia, cards passed cash on the back of contactless tap-and-go, a convenience shift rather than a settlement one. | Keep card acceptance as the core of the cashier and add bank rails as an extra option. | FEDS Note, July 2025 |
| Credit gives ground to debit and bank-funded methods, mostly staying on card rails. | Bettors in a 2024 sportsbook thread told one another to use debit cards, direct bank transfers or bank-funded PayPal instead of credit, warning that interest starts almost immediately. | The share credit loses is more likely to land on debit than to leave cards entirely. | Bettor forum thread, April 2024 |
| Bank rails win payouts before deposits. | One commenter in a December 2025 thread said DraftKings does not allow withdrawals of gift card deposits, and another said most sites require deposits to be played through first. | Withdrawal rules already route money out differently from how it came in, so the payout leg is where an instant bank rail fits first. | Bettor forum thread, December 2025 |
None of these sources measures the US iGaming deposit mix itself. The first operator to publish its own split by payment method will settle more of this debate than any forecast, mine included.
Forecast: 12-24 months
Cards versus pay-by-bank in US iGaming through 2028
How card fees, withdrawal speed, issuer rules and wallets are likely to shape the way US players fund betting and casino accounts through 2028.
What shifts next in US iGaming payments
Read each forecast with its early indicator and confidence level, and weigh it against the evidence that would prove it wrong.
Through 2028, debit and credit cards remain the most common way US players fund iGaming accounts, and pay-by-bank grows alongside them rather than past them. Card and ACH volumes are both still rising, and US pay-by-bank is still in its early stages compared with Europe. Past overtakes, like cards passing cash in Australia, needed a convenience leap such as contactless tap-and-go.
By 2028, rising card acceptance costs push more US iGaming operators to steer depositors toward bank payments through pricing and incentives. The savings move a slice of volume but do not flip the default method.
By 2028, the method that eats into card share in US iGaming is more likely the wallet layer than direct pay-by-bank. Wallets draw on stored balances before linked cards or bank accounts, and fintechs such as PicPay are seeking authorization to run their own betting operations.
As pay-by-bank grows in US iGaming through 2028, most of its value goes to non-bank providers that connect operators to bank rails, such as Trustly, rather than to the banks that hold player accounts. This would repeat the pattern seen in Europe.
Through 2028, pay-by-bank gains its firmest US iGaming foothold on payouts before deposits. Withdrawal delays are the sharpest complaint in the cashier, and funds sent back to a bank account avoid the limits operators place on gift-card deposits.
Credit cards keep losing share of US sportsbook and casino deposits to debit cards and direct bank transfers through 2028. Issuers treat gambling deposits as cash advances with per-transaction fees and immediate interest, while bank-funded bets move with little friction.
Early Indicators Federal Reserve data show ACH transfers and card payments both increasing substantially in number and value, so bank transfers are gaining without cards losing ground. Sportsbook bettors report credit card deposits being coded as cash advances, and they recommend debit cards, direct bank transfers or bank-linked PayPal instead. Players report withdrawals stuck on pending for weeks on offshore crash games, and one bettor reported that DraftKings does not allow withdrawals of gift card deposits. Visa and Mastercard swipe fees reached $111.2 billion in 2024, up from about $100 billion in 2023. In Canada, merchants won the right to add surcharges capped at 2.4 percent after a 2021 class action. PayPal pulls from the PayPal balance before any connected debit card, credit card or bank account. PicPay has requested authorization to run its own betting operation through Nosso Time iGaming. Ebury used open banking to become the first non-bank connected directly to faster payments, and Verizon partnered with Trustly to bring pay by bank into retail stores.
Payments research behind each forecast
Public sources from the Federal Reserve, payments press and bettor forums, with the line each forecast relies on.
| Source | What it states | Forecasts it backs |
|---|---|---|
| The Fed - Pay-by-Bank and the Merchant Payments Use Case [Government] | ACH transfers and debit and credit card payments have increased substantially by both number and value. Ownership and use of digital wallets and peer-to-peer payment apps are also growing. | Cards stay the default deposit method |
| Cards overtake cash for consumer payments in Australia [Web source] | The shift was driven by the growing popularity of contactless tap-and-go transactions. “This outcome isn't surprising, given the digitally savvy nature of Australian consumers and the fact that penetration of digital point-of-sale terminals and…” | Cards stay the default deposit method |
| Merchants Who Tried Pay by Bank: - by Chandana Cherukuri [Substack / Newsletter] | Per the Nilson Report, 2024 swipe fees for Visa and Mastercard "(across both credit and debit)" reached $111.2 billion, up from approximately $100 billion in 2023. “Digital-native gaming consumers accept alternative payment rails, but fraud prevention and regulatory complexity limit widespread adoption.” Verizon "was the first" carrier to require a debit card or bank account for a $10 monthly AutoPay discount on some plans. That works out to $120 a year. Verizon also partnered with Trustly to bring pay by bank into retail stores. |
Card fees push operators toward bank rails Fintech intermediaries capture bank-rail value |
| Credit Card Surcharges: Should You Include Them in Your Business? [Web source] | The settlement allowed merchants to add surcharges capped at 2.4 percent. “The surcharges come from a 2021 class action lawsuit where Canadian merchants sued Visa, Mastercard and several banks, saying credit card processing fees were…” | Card fees push operators toward bank rails |
| Revolut in Talks to Buy Digital Bank FUPS for Turkey Debut [Substack / Newsletter] | PicPay has requested authorization to run its own betting operation through Nosso Time iGaming, focused on sports betting at major events. “French authorities said lender HSBC agreed to pay a fine of nearly 268 million euros ($312.9 million) in connection with an investigation into accusations of…” | Wallets, not bank rails, challenge cards |
| How To Use Paypal On Games No Bank Account Needed [Video] | PayPal takes money from the PayPal balance before it tries any other connected debit cards, credit cards or bank accounts. [1:38]. | Wallets, not bank rails, challenge cards |
| Episode 41: Sharing open banking success stories - spotlight on [Web source] | Ebury used open banking "as a lever to become the first non-bank to be directly connected to the faster payments." (Mark Hewlett). “They weren't like a scheme. They didn't have decades and decades of rule sets and compliance and roles and responsibilities.” | Fintech intermediaries capture bank-rail value |
| ULPT: Use sports betting to avoid gift card to bank account fees [Community / Forum] | A commenter said information they found online indicates DraftKings does not allow withdrawals of gift card deposits, which contradicts the poster's account. “I was just able to transfer 100$ out of 100$ visa gift card to Draftkings and ultimately my bank that I wasn't able to get to work with Paypal or Square” | Bank rails win withdrawals before deposits |
| The Viral “Chicken Road” Crash Game Will Roast Your Bank Account - Here’s the Data TikTok [Blog] | Reviewers on Trustpilot and social media report button lag only at high stakes, fake "network error" pop-ups during cash-out, and withdrawal requests stuck on "pending" for weeks. “Is this Chicken Road thing even legal? Can I get my money back?” | Bank rails win withdrawals before deposits |
| My bank charged me “cash advance fees” for depositing [Community / Forum] | Multiple commenters (Comments 2, 3, 4, 5, 9, 12) said credit card deposits to sportsbooks are treated as cash advances by card providers. This triggers per-transaction cash-advance fees. “You basically took cash from your credit card. You did not buy a product.” | Credit gives way to debit and bank transfers |
| If my bank is so concerned about me losing money investing in [Community / Forum] | The user said they had never had payments to betting or gaming sites stopped or questioned by their bank, despite placing "the odd bet from time to time.". “Fuck you, I'll spend my money any way I want” | Credit gives way to debit and bank transfers |
What could tip deposits toward bank rails
Regulatory, issuer and operator moves that would speed up or stall the shift from cards to bank-funded deposits in US iGaming.
Confidence, With Limits
“Cards stay the default deposit method” reflects our strongest conviction, while “Wallets, not bank rails, challenge cards” is where we are most prepared to be wrong.
- A faster shift would follow if US regulators restricted credit-card gambling deposits the way the UK and Germany already do. It would also follow if card swipe fees kept climbing past the $111.2 billion Visa and Mastercard collected in 2024 and operators passed that cost to players, or if major operators priced bank-funded deposits the way Verizon prices AutoPay.
- Cards would hold even more ground if real-time pay-by-bank in the US stayed limited to bill payments and account transfers.
Why are cards still winning US iGaming deposits in 2026?
Players already fund almost everything with cards, and instant bank rails change how fast money settles, not how people choose to pay. Pay-by-bank is growing from a small base.
Before rebuilding a cashier around bank rails, I would test three things:
- Do your depositors already pay this way somewhere else?
- Does the new option settle instantly, or still over ACH?
- Can one processor underwrite both rails on a single application?
The 2023 Survey of Consumer Payment Choice, cited in the Federal Reserve's July 2025 FEDS Note, put credit cards at 32% and debit cards at 30% of retail purchases by number. A 2024 study in the same note found only about 11% of US adults had made even one open banking payment in the prior year. Most US pay-by-bank still settles over ACH.
Willingness is not usage. Across the 3 sources I weighed for this section, none shows US bank payments displacing cards, and even a pay-by-bank vendor's own pitch concedes real-time bank payments are not yet widespread here. The common assumption that FedNow and RTP flip deposits overnight skips the habit problem entirely.
Our underwriting team made a related point in September 2026: a processor prices how money moves, meaning prepaid balances, stored value and cash-out paths, not the label on the application. That is why the documentation high-risk underwriters actually need shapes your options more than whichever rail is trending this quarter.
Where will pay-by-bank win first: deposits or payouts?
Payouts. Players feel withdrawal speed far more sharply than deposit speed, so instant bank transfers out of the account land first while cards keep funding most deposits.
The friction sits at cash-out. In a 2025 analysis of the viral crash game Chicken Road, Ashutosh Kumar collected player reports of withdrawal requests stuck on "pending" for weeks. An open banking vendor made the same point from the other side in 2024, claiming 1 in 4 European users would consider depositing more if they could withdraw instantly. I expect US operators to wire up instant payouts well before they push bank deposits.
Deposits face a different tension: cost. Card issuers often code credit card sportsbook deposits as cash advances, and one bettor in a 2024 forum thread found 10 to 15 separate $10 cash-advance fees tied to gambling deposits. Fellow bettors told the poster to switch to debit. That move keeps the deposit on card rails.
Operators carry their own card costs. Indeed's employer guide explains that a 2021 Canadian class action against Visa, Mastercard and several banks ended with merchants allowed to surcharge credit cards, capped at 2.4 percent. Price steers behavior at the margin. It rarely flips the default, and the same guide warns that customers who resent a surcharge may simply take their business elsewhere, which is why I would model costs carefully using a breakdown of what a high-risk merchant account should cost before steering anyone toward a bank transfer.
What is the realistic 2028 forecast for pay-by-bank in iGaming?
Through 2028, cards remain the main way US players fund iGaming accounts. Pay-by-bank grows as a secondary rail, and wallets are the likelier challenger to card share.
Payment habits move slowly. Finextra reported in 2017 that Reserve Bank of Australia survey data showed cards overtaking cash for the first time in 2016, at 52% of payments versus 37% for cash. The driver was contactless convenience, not a cost argument.
Cost alone will not do it either. Chandana Cherukuri's 2025 review of merchants that tried pay by bank cited the Nilson Report finding that Visa and Mastercard swipe fees reached $111.2 billion in 2024, yet still judged that gaming "shows promise but faces barriers," pointing to fraud checks, KYC demands and rules that differ by jurisdiction.
Conventional wisdom casts pay-by-bank as the card killer. I read it differently. The fintech PicPay has requested authorization to run its own betting operation, which tells me the wallet layer, not the raw bank rail, is where card share is most exposed. Nothing is forcing a switch, either: in a 2021 forum thread, one bettor said their bank had never stopped or questioned payments to betting sites.
| Forecast through 2028 | Direction | Signal that would prove it wrong |
|---|---|---|
| Cards stay the primary deposit rail | Holds | US limits on credit card gambling deposits |
| Pay-by-bank wins payouts first | Grows | Instant bank deposits outpace instant payouts |
| Credit share drifts toward debit | Shifts within card rails | Issuers stop coding deposits as cash advances |
| Wallets pressure cards more than bank rails | Contrarian call | Operators route bank payments directly instead of through wallets |
Put those 4 sources together and my call, dated October 2026, is that operators who keep credit card processing at the core and add bank payouts through one set of merchant payment processing solutions lose nothing if I am wrong, and the first number worth tracking is how fast their own withdrawals clear.
What should iGaming operators plan for before 2028?
Plan for cards to stay the main deposit rail through 2028, and treat instant bank transfers as a payout upgrade that comes first, not a replacement for card deposits.
Where I land: adoption starts from too low a base to flip by 2028, with a 2024 study putting open banking use at about 11% of US adults. A faster elevator does not change which floor people work on. FedNow and RTP speed up the trip. They do not pick the destination.
The harder brake is rules. A panelist on a July 2026 payments.ca podcast warned that account-to-account looks great "until you do liabilities and fraud and chargebacks and the rules, there are no real rules." Card schemes already carry the decades of rule sets that panel said bank setups lacked. For operators, the practical meaning is simple: until US bank rails offer a dispute path players trust, the deposit button stays a card button, and the bank rail earns its place on the way out.
Written by
Lily Flanigan
Operations Manager, SeamlessChex
Lily Flanigan is Operations Manager at SeamlessChex, a credit card processing and fintech payments platform recognized on the Inc. 5000, where she focuses on operations and process optimization.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What else do iGaming operators ask about pay-by-bank?
Most questions come down to cost, settlement speed and dispute risk. Bank rails save on fees and settle faster, while cards still carry the stronger dispute rules.
Is pay-by-bank cheaper than credit card processing?
Per transaction, usually yes. Pay-by-bank is a payment that starts in the customer's bank account, runs over ACH or instant payment rails, and settles directly into the merchant's bank account, so it skips the 1.5% to 3.5% card processing fees a 2025 merchant analysis cited. The catch in gaming is size. Many gaming transactions are micro-transactions under $10, which leaves little saving per deposit.
How fast does pay-by-bank settle compared with cards?
Faster, though not always instantly. The same 2025 analysis put pay-by-bank settlement at 1 to 2 days, against 3 to 5 days for cards. Instant rails can shorten that further, and players notice the gap most on withdrawals.
Does pay-by-bank cut chargeback risk?
Not on its own. One open banking panelist described Europe's early bank-payment rules as "very much ad hoc," a period when "the standards kept changing." I would not build a cashier plan around fewer disputes until US bank rails settle on clear liability rules.
Can operators surcharge credit cards to steer players toward bank payments?
Only within card network rules. Visa and Mastercard set their own limits on surcharge amounts and require disclosure to customers. In Canada, merchants have had to give Visa, Mastercard and their bank at least 30 days' notice before surcharging since October 6, 2022. The sources here do not cover US state rules. Players may also read a surcharge as a penalty for their preferred method, which is a real cost in a competitive cashier.
How quickly can an iGaming operator get set up with SeamlessChex?
SeamlessChex offers same-day onboarding and no contracts, with credit card processing as the core and ACH alongside it, online or in person. Approval requires an established business track record and monthly processing volume of $25,000 or more. Applications start at seamlesschex.com/contact.
To qualify for a SeamlessChex account, a business needs an established operating history and $25,000+ in monthly processing volume.