Gambling With American Express
Even with the mainstream shift to crypto gambling, all the best-reviewed legal online betting sites still accept credit cards, debit cards, and international gift cards for deposits. And although Visa and Mastercard are the most popular card-based deposit options, many of the top operators also support legal online American Express gambling.
If you want to make sure you join the very best online Amex casino, online American Express sports betting site, or online AmEx poker room, our short guide to betting with American Express – and betting sites that accept Amex – has everything you need. So, you know, don’t leave home without it!
Is It Legal To Use Amex To Deposit Funds Into An Online Gambling Site In The United States?
We wouldn’t have written this page if it weren’t! In the USA, it’s 100% legal to sign up and risk real money at betting sites that take American Express. In some states, you can even do so at the domestic level (though such states are still few and far between as of 2022).
But regardless of where you live in America, as long as the online gambling sites you choose are reputable, established, and have reputations for legitimacy, you can join and play without breaking any US gambling laws or individual state laws.
Exception: The state of Washington has gaming regulations that nominally forbid all online gambling. While these laws appear to be totally unenforced (we’ve never heard of any WA resident being cited, fined, or arrested for offshore online gambling), you’re advised to follow all local gambling mandates.
Online American Express Casinos
All the top-rated venues we recommend here are fully fledged casinos that accept American Express deposits. While not every online casino that takes AmEx can be trusted to provide a safe, legal gaming experience, the vendors featured on this page are tried and true.
Each operator has been in the business for years and has a great reputation for offering hundreds of the best online slot machines, online blackjack games, online roulette wheels, online bingo, video poker, keno, craps, and more. These AmEx casinos have everything you expect to find on a world-class Vegas gaming floor, including real live-dealer casino tables!
Top Online Casinos Accepting American Express (Amex) In 2024
Bovada Casino
100% up to $3,000
Slots.lv
500% up to $5,000
Cafe Casino
350% up to $2,500
Online Sports Betting With American Express
Not all online sportsbooks that accept American Express have the most up-to-date odds. However, every legal online sports betting site we feature here does. These venues are widely considered to be not only the best sports betting sites that accept American Express, but the best sports betting sites period!
Each bookmaker here boasts dozens of sports and leagues from the US and abroad, live odds on nearly every contest, and custom prop builders so you can create your own betting lines and parlays. If you join more than one American Express sportsbook, you’ll also be able to easily shop lines for the best possible payouts on every event.
Top Online Sportsbooks Accepting American Express (Amex) In 2024
Bovada Sportsbook
50% Max $1,000
MyBookie
50% Max $1,000
BetOnline
100% Up To $1,000
Online Amex Poker Sites
If you play online poker – or if you’re simply thinking about starting your career off with the best possible hand – playing poker online with American Express is a great way to ante up. The best AmEx poker sites all have the classic poker games you expect, including Texas Holdem and Omaha for veterans and Omaha Hi-Lo for beginners.
American Express online poker deposits go through nearly 100% of the time, so you’ll be able to build your stack of online poker chips in time to enter tonight’s Sit-N-Go event or tomorrow’s big online poker tournament. And as always, AmEx poker deposits let you claim valuable poker bonuses, so you can earn free chips as you play.
Top Online Poker Rooms Accepting American Express Credit Card Deposits In 2024
Bovada Poker
100% Max $500
Everything You Need To Know About Using American Express To Gamble Online
How To Bet Using American Express
The first step in ensuring that you can bet with American Express online is to make sure the site you’re interested in joining actually accepts the payment option.
However, once you’ve joined an AmEx betting site (or three!), the depositing process is straightforward and simple. If you’ve ever used your AmEx card for anything, you’ll know exactly how to use it for legal online casino gambling, sports betting, and poker action.
That being said, AmEx cards – like all credit, debit, and gift cards used for online gambling – are one-way only. That is, they only work for deposits. Thus, if you deposit into your legal betting account with American Express, you’ll need to make sure you have an alternative withdrawal option in mind when it’s time to collect your winnings.
Using American Express To Deposit Into Online Gambling Sites
While we know you know how to use an AmEx card to make online purchases, we’ll outline the process below as used by the top Internet gambling venues. This should ensure that there’s never any confusion and that you’ll be able to gamble online ASAP:
- Follow any link on this page to a legit online casino, sportsbook, or poker room that accepts American Express.
- Enter in all required personal information, including your name, address, mobile phone number, and email address. Legit gambling sites will never ask for sensitive info like your SSN, and all data is secured with SSL/TLS encryption.
- Select the American Express option from your site’s deposit menu and enter in your credentials as normal.
- Choose the amount of money you’d like to deposit and select an optional online gambling promo (recommended).
- Submit your deposit.
Collecting Your Gambling Winnings With Amex
In the early days of online betting, American Express chargebacks were often issued by legit online gambling sites as a way to pay players out. Unfortunately, the times have changed.
Now, due to the potential for UIGEA interference on Amex chargebacks, all the top online gambling venues have stopped offering this kind of withdrawal method – and not just for Amex, but for all branded cards.
Instead, you’ll need to claim your payouts using one of the other options available. We prefer receiving our money in cryptocurrency, as there are no added fees, and crypto is the only reliable option for same-day payouts.
However, all the following gambling withdrawal options should be available to you regardless of the site you choose (with online gambling voucher and MatchPay withdrawals available at select operators):
- Bitcoin (BTC)
- Altcoins
- Courier Checks
- Bank Wires
- Money Orders
Note: Check, wire, and money order payouts will come with added processing fees, lower maximum withdrawal limits, and much longer transaction times than crypto gambling payouts.
Special Gambling Site Deposit Bonuses When Using American Express
At all the best American Express betting sites featured here, new members can score deposit match bonuses when signing up and making their first deposits. These online gambling signup bonuses/welcome bonuses typically add 50-100% of your deposit amount to your betting balance in the form of free spins, free coins, free plays, etc.
Please remember that legal online gambling bonuses come with playthrough requirements/rollover requirements that must be met before claiming any associated payouts. While these are easy to meet for most players, be sure to read the terms and conditions before accepting any American Express betting bonus.
Note: If you want to get enhanced online betting bonuses, you’ll need to deposit with cryptocurrency, as crypto is the only banking method that earns bigger bonuses for first-time depositors and returning members. Enhanced crypto gambling bonuses are usually worth 2X-3X more than standard American Express gambling bonuses.
Transaction Speed and Fees for American Express Gambling Deposits
American Express online gambling speeds are the same as those for other card platforms (i.e. Visa, Mastercard, Discover). That is, they’re basically instantaneous. Of course, as with all credit or debit card-based “traditional” gambling deposits, Amex transactions do run the risk of being interrupted or declined due to stringent approval processes put in place by the UIGEA.
That said, the risk of transaction failure is actually smaller here than with other card types, as American Express transactions are usually rejected by the issuing bank or company only about 1-2% of the time (compared to 3-5% of the time for other platforms). Thus, Amex betting transfers can be said to be generally faster than other credit/debit options.
As for surcharges when making online gambling deposits, the fees at AmEx betting sites are a bit higher than those for competing card platforms. This might be a deterrent for you, but many gamblers take advantage of their American Express rewards plans to capitalize in other ways.
Remember, Amex miles/Amex points are often more valuable than rewards earned with Visa, Mastercard, and/or Discover. As such, be sure to check out your card’s terms and conditions before making any decisions on whether or not to use American Express for legal online gambling.
Amex Gambling Pros And Cons
As with any legal online gambling banking option, there are pros and cons to betting with American Express at legit offshore betting sites. For the most part, these are identical to those you’d get when betting with Visa, betting with Mastercard, and/or betting with Discover.
However, there are also differences between each of these card platforms, and that’s where American Express gambling sets itself apart. As we see it, these are the hits and misses we’ve experienced when gambling with AmEx at the best online betting sites:
The Good VS The Bad
FAQ's For Gambling With American Express
While there aren’t as many legal online gambling sites that accept AmEx compared to sites that accept Visa and Mastercard, American Express gambling is available at several top operators.
Reputable online casinos accepting AmEx – as well as online sportsbooks accepting AmEx and online poker sites accepting AmEx – have been available to USA players for a long time, and the card platform is getting more support each year.
That said, if you insist on gambling with American Express exclusively, it will limit your online betting options in 2022.
Yes
As long as you stick with one of the legal online gambling venues featured on this page, you’re guaranteed a safe experience with both the banking suite available to you as well as all the legit betting markets on tap.
And of course, all AmEx accounts are safeguarded and insured against all forms of identity theft and other kinds of credit card fraud.
Yes
American Express transactions are secured by cutting-edge encryption technologies, and the platform has the reputation of being the most advanced and safest payment network in the world.
You will rarely ever hear about American Express data breaches, for example.
While crypto is more secure than AmEx, AmEx is the most secure card-based gambling option going.
There is no single best American Express casino, but there are several sites that can be considered the best American Express casinos.
In general, all the venues featured in this AmEx betting guide have a fair claim to being the best betting sites going, and when it comes to online casinos that take American Express, these operators stand out in their own ways.
We recommend joining several of the venues listed here, since signing up is free and there’s never any obligation or requirement to make a deposit before you browse a given site’s online gambling game selection.
There is no single best online AmEx sports betting site
There are only a few legal online sportsbooks that accept American Express, but they each also happen to be the best in the business.
That’s a happy coincidence, we suppose. It certainly makes things easier, too. That because, as with online AmEx casinos, it’s a good idea to join more than one American Express sports betting site.
In fact, of all the different legit gambling markets online, sports betting is the one that caters to multiple account holders best. If you have active memberships at several different AmEx sportsbooks, for example, you can shop lines for the best odds on any given matchup.
There is no single best online Amex poker room
We’re sorry to sound like a broken record with these AmEx gambling questions and answers, but as with the above AmEx betting markets, American Express poker is a royal flush at every online poker room featured in our guide.
American Express online poker is available at all the most respected and trusted offshore poker sites, and each one offers a different online poker experience.
Each venue also has different online poker tournament schedules, which means you can maximize your pot potential by joining up with multiple legal American Express poker operators.
No
In the past, AmEx gambling payouts could be issued via American Express card chargebacks, but that’s no longer the case.
The UIGEA law made it difficult and unreliable for AmEx betting sites to deliver payouts this way, and the advent of crypto betting payouts further obviated the need for American Express gambling withdrawals.
Of course, if you don’t want to claim your winnings in crypto, you can always choose courier checks or bank wires, which are common options at every legit AmEx betting venue on the Internet.
No
Whether or not a given betting venue is an online AmEx casino, online AmEx sportsbook, or online AmEx poker site is irrelevant to whether or not that site is legit.
While it’s a good sign when an online gambling venue accepts AmEx, it’s not the be-all and end-all metric for determining an operator’s legitimacy.
Of course, we’ve put every American Express betting venue featured on this page through its paces, and we’ve verified them all to be as legit as online gambling gets.
To be honest, we’ve wondered this ourselves.
Our only guess is that American Express support is a bit more difficult to get for some operators. Or, if it’s not more difficult to get, then it’s somehow more cost prohibitive (either on the operator side or on the fee side for players).
It’s probably like how some local restaurants only carry Pepsi products: Leasing the Pepsi fountain costs less than leasing the Coca-Cola fountain.
Maybe
Some legit online betting sites will charge your international American Express casino payment (or AmEx sportsbook payment or poker payment) as a cash advance.
This typically drives up fees a bit, adding up to 3% more in the way of surcharges to your AmEx betting transaction.
That being said, not all AmEx cards will process this way.
You’ll need to check the American Express terms and conditions of your particular credit card to see how international payments are assessed in order to know for sure.
Disclaimer: American Express is a third-party payment processor that can be used at various online gambling sites. American Express is not associated with this website or the online gambling sites that are listed on this page.