Written by Ed Scimia on Saturday, October 16th, 2010

There are a number of online poker sites which accept Western Union as a deposit method. Western Union is the worldwide leader in transferring money, with over 450,000 locations in over 200 countries, in addition to providing phone and online access worldwide. Lets quickly take a look at the best Western Union poker sites available on the internet.

Best Western Union Poker Sites in United States

Many online poker players use Western Union to deposit money in poker sites. There are a lot of different deposit options that online poker sites offer, but there is only one that is universally available to everyone, no matter where you live, no matter what accounts or cards, if any, that you may have.

Using Western Union also is one of the most secure ways to transfer money. These people have been transferring money for over 160 years, and continue to grow each year. So they definitely have the experience and expertise to make sure that all of your transactions with them run very smoothly and efficiently.

If you live in the United States or in other countries where the government has been known to meddle with poker deposits, Western Union deposits also have some very big built in advantages over other deposit methods.

The money is never held in bank accounts in your country for one thing. Second and perhaps even more importantly, the transactions can be done in secret without any trouble at all. In cases where added secrecy is needed, you are given the name of a real person to send the money to, so you aren’t officially sending it to the poker site themselves.

This third party then passes your money on to the poker site. You need not worry at all about your not getting credited with your deposit though, provided that the poker site that you are dealing with is a reputable one, which all of our recommendations for top Western Union poker sites definitely are.

While it can take a little longer to get credited with your Western Union deposit at the poker sites of your choice compared to some other methods, these transactions are almost always completed the same day, and if you look at all of the time you need to spend setting up a lot of the other methods, such as internet wallets or bank accounts, the total turnaround time of those can extend to a week or more. So Western Union is pretty quick compared to just about every other deposit method.

The one method that is definitely faster, instant in fact, is using a credit card. However, you may not have one, and if you do, you may prefer not to give out your credit card number to poker sites. There’s no real risk in this, but some people would rather give it to Western Union instead, and then have them send the money over. So if you are extra cautious, and don’t mind waiting a few extra hours, this makes sense.

One thing that is for sure is that it doesn’t get any safer and more trustworthy than using Western Union as far as who you want handling your money goes. The alternative is usually some payment processing company that you have never heard of, until perhaps they get busted by the government and have their assets seized.

So while the world of poker payment processing is pretty well organized generally, you really can’t beat the reliability and safety of Western Union. A lot of poker players have put their trust in them over the years, way too many to even count in fact. So if you decide that you want to use Western Union as well, then you are in very good company.

I’ve heard nothing but positive feedback from the players who I have spoken to who have used Western Union, and all transactions are said to take place glitch free. This isn’t surprising given the great reputation that Western Union has.

I’ve also have never seen a deposit method clamored for anywhere near as much as Western Union at poker sites which do not offer it. In grading poker sites, their offering Western Union is something that I put a lot of stock in, as I know that everyone has an option they can use to deposit. With the sites that don’t offer Western Union, many aspiring players get left out and don’t really have a way to deposit, and just end up going elsewhere.

So if you are looking not only for poker sites which accept Western Union, but the best poker sites that do so, you have come to the right place.

How Do I Deposit To Poker Sites With Western Union?

The place that you always want to start with is the cashier at your poker site, where there will be several options to deposit with, and one of them will be Western Union. So what you need to do is click on their link to that deposit method. Poker sites have varying instructions that you will need to follow, which at this point will be provided to you. So you will need these specific instructions, like who to send the payment to and where, before you go to Western Union and send the money.

The next step is to choose your funding option. You can visit Western Union through several channels. You can do it through their website, over the phone, through their mobile app, and of course in person at one of their many locations.

Regardless of the channel you use, once you successfully send the payment, you will be given a transaction number which you will then provide to the poker site. Then, once your deposit arrives at the poker site, they will credit it to your poker account and you can then start playing real money poker.

Minimum Western Union Poker Site Transfer

Minimum deposits vary by poker site as far as how little you can transfer in using Western Union. Depending on the site, you can deposit as little as $10, although a lot of sites have the minimum deposit set at $50, and even some as high as $100.

Some poker sites will pick up the cost of depositing through Western Union if your deposit is large enough, although the fee is pretty small so it’s not a big deal in any case.

Can I Withdraw Poker Winnings To Western Union?

Some Western Union poker sites allow withdraws and some do not. It’s certainly nice to be able to withdraw with Western Union, where you just have to go to your nearest Western Union location, show ID, and pick up your winnings.

This is an especially good option for those living in countries such as the USA or other situations where it may be preferable not to have your poker winnings in your bank account. With Western Union withdrawals, this hides the source of the funds and they also give you several options as far as how they pay it out to you.

You can choose to be paid out in cash, loaded onto a prepaid MasterCard, or even have it directly deposited into your bank account. In all cases, the source of your funds will be Western Union, so no one will ever know that the money came from a poker site, and if you select cash or the prepaid card as your method of payment, the transaction isn’t even traceable at all.

Western Union Poker Sites In The USA

Western Union has become a very popular means of depositing and withdrawing to and from the poker sites these days that still allow Americans to play there. Both the number of sites accepting Americans and the number of reliable deposit and withdrawal methods have both shrunk considerably over the last little while.

So with the limited choices out there, Western Union provides U.S players with a great option, and more and more U.S. friendly poker sites have added Western Union to their list of deposit and withdrawal methods that they accept.

So it of course comes down to not only wanting to play at a U.S. friendly poker site that take Western Union, you want to be playing at the best poker sites that accept both you and Western Union. So for your benefit we have selected the very best U.S. sites for you to try out where you will be able to make a deposit with this very popular method.

Western Union Online Casinos

In addition to being able to play poker, many of our top picks for poker sites accepting Western Union also offer casino games. So this can present you with the opportunity to play both poker and casino right from the same bankroll.

This is a great way to enjoy all of the thrills that casino games offer. Quite a few online poker players play both, and casino games can provide a nice break from the more intense poker action, especially if you have been playing for quite a bit and want a bit of a rest.

In addition, a lot of poker sites also offer the opportunity to place bets on sporting events, once again right from the convenience of the same bankroll at the same site. I love sports betting myself and it’s a lot like a drug as far as how more exciting watching sports can be when you have a bet riding on it.

As big a fan of sports as I’ve been, I’ve always just watched and rooted for my favorite teams, like most sports fans. However, now that I bet on games, there’s no comparison and I watch anything I have a bet on, and enjoy it even more.

Choosing A Western Union Poker Site

As is always the case, finding a site which offers you your preferred deposit method is just part of the battle. Based upon our experience with poker sites, it would be extremely easy to just throw the rather long list at you and have you just pick one, like a lot of other people who recommend specific poker sites do.

That wouldn’t really be all that helpful to you though, as poker sites differ by quality, and giving you the whole list without you knowing which ones were the best among them would be leaving things up to luck way too much. Perhaps you’d get lucky and pick one of the best ones right off the bat.

Since we have the knowledge and experience to help you out here, it really wouldn’t make much sense to hold this back. So what we have done is reduced our list of Western Union poker sites to the top ones, the ones that score high on our list of things that makes a great poker site great.

So the thing that matters the most here is picking for you the poker sites which you are most likely to do well at, based upon not only our own experiences, but the experiences of many players who have shared with us their relative successes at the various poker sites out there.

Basing your decisions on actual real life results is far better than doing what almost all players do, which is relying on being sucked in the slick marketing of some poker sites, or just relying on the recommendations of friends or other people who usually don’t have the skills and experience to make very good choices for you.

In fact, most online poker players make some pretty poor choices, and if you simply follow them, you are just going to go down the same wrong path as they are. What you also don’t want to do is just follow the crowd, to a place like Poker Stars for instance where the majority of online poker players play these days, even though it is by far the toughest site to do well at.

So you can feel confident that all of our top recommended Western Union poker room selections are also among the very best poker sites out there period. So you are welcome to try out one or more, and we’ve also arranged for you to be paid some generous poker bonuses just to check them out.

Western Union Poker Room Depositing at Lock Poker

Lock Poker (www.lockpoker.com) is one of the fastest growing online poker rooms in the world thanks in part to their great promotions and strong reputation. Lock Poker has a large player pool full of fish, something which has helped attract many new poker players over the years.

Using Western Union at Lock Poker is as painless as it can be; Lock Poker provides you with clear instructions on filling out the Western Union paperwork, and customer support reps are available to answer any questions you might have.

Lock Poker is currently offering new players a deposit bonus of $1200 to any player who creates a new Lock Poker account! This is one of the best poker deposit bonuses you will ever find, and you can take advantage of this limited offer by following the link we have provided to Lock Poker below.

>> Click here to visit Lock Poker <<

Depositing to Bodog Poker Using Western Union

Bodog Poker (www.bodog.com) makes depositing extremely easy, even for Western Union depositors. Once you choose the Western Union deposit option, Bodog poker will walk you through the rest of the process, detailing each step as clearly as possible.

New players at Bodog Poker can also take advantage of the site’s poker deposit bonus which currently stands at a very nice 100% match bonus up to a maximum of $600. You can receive this deposit bonus by following the links we have provided on this page. Click below to play at one of our top 3 Western Union poker sites.

>> Click here to visit Bodog Poker <<

Intertops Poker Accepts Western Union

Intertops Poker (www.intertops.com) is another Western Union poker site that does a good job of explaining the depositing process in clear steps, which should come a no surprise since Intertops Poker was one of the first online poker sites that accept Western Union deposits.

Although their deposit bonus isn’t as large as other poker sites 100% up to $600 deposit bonus clears extremely fast, and as soon as you have finished clearing your deposit bonus you can start climbing the ladder on VIP Rewards Program, widely considered one of the best in online poker.

>> Click here to visit Intertops Poker <<

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