The first Neteller casualty

[johnny1212]

Instacash, the fast lane channel for depositing and receiving funds via Neteller was the first casualty of the Lawrence-Lefebvre issue, with the Isle of Man financial company stopping the service for American players shortly after the arrests early this week.

Although Neteller did not discontinue their more conventional and established funding methods for US players, the following advisory was received through several sites:

“Neteller’s InstaCash option for U.S. players has been discontinued. You may still make a regular Neteller deposit at this time. If you don’t already have funds available at Neteller, please use our Instant eCheck deposit option to make an immediate deposit directly from your bank account.”

Neteller gave notice of the suspension on its “Live Help” page and FAQ section, and Support personnel were briefed along similar lines:

“At the end of 2006, NETELLER began reviewing the InstaCash payment option, which resulted in the decision to retire this product from the US, effective January 16, 2007. As such, IstaCash is no longer available to US members. Players will also notice that Neteller has disabled the use of Credit Cards to fund their Neteller accounts. The InstaCash and Credit Card uses were the only two ways to “instantly fund” Neteller accounts.”

Although these messages imply a planned withdrawal prior to the Lefebvre and Lawrence arrests, many online casino gambling industry observers felt that this was more a case of putting a positive face on an act of necessity.

Neteller’s previously fast-track deposit solution will now take up to 2-5 business days to fund accounts, with funding accounts from the US primarily through EFT deposits which take up to 4-5 days, or through bank wire which takes 2 or more days.

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