UPDATE: Ukash Merges with Paysafecard
Paysafecard acquired Ukash in 2015 and swiftly merged the two payment methods into one under the Paysafecard name. Owned by the Skrill Group, Paysafecard is the global market leader in prepaid online payment methods and, as such, is popular with online casino players worldwide.
Just like Ukash, they offer a fast and secure way for online casino players to deposit into their player accounts – while avoiding sharing personal information, credit card or bank details. Read more about Paysafecard casinos to see their similarities with Ukash casinos, or take your pick from the options above who offer this method.
What Was Ukash?
Ukash, founded in 2005 and located in the UK, was a financial services provider that allowed “cybernauts” to make online payments with cash money. The service was available in many countries, and payments were accepted by thousands of websites and several online casinos.
The system worked with so-called pre-paid “vouchers” that could be purchased in over 420,000 points of sale worldwide. As such, the service basically converted cash money into “e-money”. When you wanted to make a payment with Ukash, you needed to go to a reseller to purchase the voucher with cash money.
After paying, you’d receive a ticket with a unique 19-digit code. This code represented the money you’d paid in cash and allowed you to make payments or purchase goods anywhere on the internet where the system was accepted as a payment option. To know where the nearest point of sale was located, you could consult the Store Locator on the website. There was also a Store Locator application that could be downloaded on a mobile device.
In many countries, it was possible to buy Ukash codes online by paying for the voucher using a bank account or credit card. As the service was available in many countries, the vouchers had the option to be issued in many local currencies. However, to make transnational online payments, it was occasionally required for the local currency to be converted into a more common currency, such as US dollars, euros or British pounds (requiring a foreign exchange fee). This was done on the website in the Manage Ukash area with the Convert Tool.
Suppose you bought a code for €100 and €50 of that amount you spent at a website. You, of course, wouldn’t have then lost the remaining €50, instead of receiving a new code that represented your “change money”. Besides the above-mentioned possibilities, it was possible to also use vouchers to transfer money to e-wallets or prepaid (debit) cards. You could split a code of a certain value into several codes representing smaller amounts too if you wish. The other way around was possible as well – combining several smaller valued codes and converting them into a larger amount.
Last but not least, Ukash offered clients a plastic MasterCard that could equally be uploaded with money using the vouchers. This prepaid card allowed users to pay on the websites of millions of e-businesses and in millions of points of sale all around the world, while it was even possible to get cash out of ATMs.
Formerly Paying with Ukash in an Online Casino
Paying in an online casino with Ukash was very simple.
Once you’d bought a voucher of a certain value, you could go to the payment/deposit section of the casino, choose “Prepaid Cards” and then “Ukash”. Once your 19-digit code was entered into the indicated field, you were given the option to select the currency of your casino account, before finally filling in the amount you wished to deposit.
By confirming your transaction, the desired amount would then immediately be deducted from your voucher and added to your casino account. Normally a confirmation e-mail of your payment would follow.
Formerly Withdrawing with Ukash in an Online Casino
It wasn’t possible to withdraw money from your casino account using Ukash. If a deposit was made using this service, then a different withdrawal method needed to be chosen when taking out any winnings.
Prior Advantages of Using Ukash
There were various advantages of using this platform to make a deposit in an online casino:
- Payments were carried out instantly
- The service was safe and reliable, as you didn’t need to provide any sensitive data.
- Deposits were completely anonymous, while even purchasing the voucher at a point of sale didn’t require any identification.
- It was a great way to manage your casino budget, as you could never spend more than you’d paid for in cash.
- Various currencies and the pre-paid MasterCard were useful
Prior Disadvantages of Using Ukash
The disadvantages of the service were the following:
- Not registering on their website forced you to physically obtain a code
- You were required to remember your 19-digit code, or at least not misplace it.
- No casino withdrawals were possible
Where You Could Pay with Ukash
As Ukash was one of the few online casino depositing options that was completely anonymous and done by cash, many of the NetEnt Casinos listed on our website accepted it.
Despite Ukash no longer being in service, the above procedures and advantages are widely available by using its merged service – paysafecard. Therefore, although deposits via Ukash at online casinos are no longer possible, much of the benfits still are!