Best Online Casinos that Accept Western Union Payments in 2024

Information about Western Union casinos

Western Union (WU) is an international payment service that allows users to transfer money to almost every country in the world. Originally a communications company, it has focused solely on money transfers since 2006 and is now one of the biggest payment services in the world.

Thanks to its global presence, you can use the service for almost any type of online transaction, including Western Union casino deposits. This page will show you the best casinos that accept this method, as well as how to make the deposit once you find your preferred site. You can also read a little about Western Union itself, the pros and cons of its service, and how to find bonuses offered by Western Union casinos.

Table of contents:

Western Union: the former telegraph company that's now a leading payment service

Today's Western Union is very different to when it was formed – but then, that was over 170 years ago. Back then, it was at the forefront of the new telegraph industry which was connecting the growing number of US states.

After a merger of the nation's six largest telegraph firms, Western Union made the first-ever transcontinental telegraph between the Eastern USA and California in 1861, a milestone in the formation of the modern United States.

Telegraphy started a long decline over the next century, however, forcing Western Union to seek new industries. After ventures into the telex and telecommunications sectors, a full-scaled debt restructure and a takeover by First Data, it settled on the financial services industry in 2006. This formed the basis of the company that we know today, with a focus on wire transfers and mobile payments.

It proved to be a smart move. Booming sales allowed the company to acquire several financial service companies for a combined total of well over $1 billion between 2009 and 2011. One of them, Finint S.r.l., opened up over 10,000 subagents in Europe to the company, significantly expanding its customer base.

In 2015, Western Union launched its Connect service, signaling a move into app payments. WeChat and Viber were the two beneficiaries of the deal. It has since been hit with allegations of pushing smaller banks out of the market by the EU's financial regulator, however.

Western Union enjoys a status as one of the leading payment methods in the world today, serving over 150 million customers in 130 currencies, according to its own figures.

Pros and cons of Western Union

Western Union may have a worldwide network of customers, but what are the pros and cons of using it? Casino Guru has assessed WU's service to provide you with a balanced view.

Let's start with the positives:

• It's very secure. The service uses several layers of security, including SSL encryption, which means your data remains private. It also employs a multi-factor authentication procedure to fully verify users, and there's a 24/7 fraud hotline that promises to respond to security issues immediately.
• It's universally accepted. Western Union is accepted pretty much anywhere. We're not sure of exact figures, but it's safe to say that WU-friendly individuals and merchants number well into the hundreds of millions.
• It's super simple to use. Go to the Western Union official site and you can start a payment right away on its landing page. You'll have to register but the whole process only takes a couple of minutes. This beats a lot of other providers who sometimes have complicated sign-up processes.

And now the negatives:

• There are often high fees involved. Western Union transfers normally incur a fee as it's how the company earns money. However, there are plenty of digital providers who offer free transfers, so this should be viewed as a negative. The amount varies on your location and where you want to send the money to, but fees can be well over 10%.
• Transfer times can be slow. In an age of instant digital payments, talk of 24-hour waiting times seems to belong in the 20th century. Western Union admits on its site that transfers can take up to one business day, which doesn't seem like a great deal considering the fees involved.

How to use Western Union in online casinos

Western Union's worldwide presence makes it a popular choice for online casinos, but making a deposit is a little different to normal methods.

First of all, make sure your casino account is fully verified (if needed) and ready to receive deposits. Then take the following steps:

1. Get your casino's banking information from either the 'Deposits' section or the customer service team.
2. Go to your Western Union mobile app, or your nearest land-based agent, and enter the details into the payment section of the e-form or payment slip. Make sure that all of these details are correct.
3. Get in touch with the casino's customer support team and tell them the tracking number to identify your deposit. Once they verify this, the amount should appear in your account as soon as they receive it.
4. Go ahead: you are now free to start playing casino games!

Finding the best Western Union casino for you

Knowing which online casino to play on is a dilemma that every player faces at some point. If you click the 'All' filter on this page, you'll see each casino that accepts Western Union payments on our database – but how do you know which one to go for?

To make this task easier, Casino Guru has assessed each site and awarded it a Safety Index based on its customer service and ability to pay out big wins, to name just two criteria. These are objective factors that we believe give us an accurate view of the casino's performance.

You can then use this page's filters to find one that best fits your needs. The 'Recommended' tab is where we advise you to start: when selected, this will show you the casinos with the highest Safety Index ratings in your area and will give you the best chance of a great playing experience.

The 'Newly opened' tab will show you the newest Western Union casinos out there. Choose one of these to catch the next big thing but be aware that they may not be great options due to their inexperience.

We also have a selection of other filters in case you'd like to narrow the list down further. 'Game provider', for example, lets you choose only the sites that have games from a particular developer, such as Konami casinos or NetEnt casinos. Select the name of your choice from the list of options. You can also do the same for 'Game Type' - in case you're looking for a certain style of game - currency and languages.

How to find Western Union casino bonuses

If you're here to look for online casino bonuses, then you're in the right place. Several Western Union sites offer them, and they often update their offers so you might find a great deposit or no deposit bonus each time you look. Remember though, casino bonuses are only a nice perk if used correctly: our How do casino bonuses work? article will give you all the info you need.

To see Western Union offers, go to our list of casino bonuses and select 'Western Union' on the Payment Method filter there. You can then find a particular bonus in the 'Bonus Type' section: for deposit bonuses, for example, just tick the 'Deposit bonus' option. You can see the same offers by going to our list of deposit bonuses and choosing 'Western Union'.

So, there you have it. A guide to using Western Union in online casinos. Have fun but remember the most important rule of all: stay safe.