To Canadians, the word Interac is as common as the concept of a debit card. That is because, in Canada, the company was almost solely responsible for introducing debit cards as a payment method.
Most people in Canada still use Interac on a daily basis. Get this: out of a country of just over 35 million, over 30 million people use it. In the days of credit cards with all sorts of rewards, debit cards from a wide variety of suppliers, and online payment methods like PayPal and Skrill, Interac still reigns supreme.
With gamblers, the situation isn’t any different. Whether playing blackjack, poker, or slots, most Canadians use Interac to load up their accounts. Why? Let’s have a closer look.
It’s Adding New Services
When Interac was introduced to the market, it was primarily a payment processor at the point-of-sale. Since then, it has developed and now offers a wide range of other financial products. This has been absolutely necessary, as the introduction of different technologies has pushed payment processing to a new frontier.
Because of these services, which are embedded in a Canadian’s daily life, it means that it’s also more likely people will turn to Interac when transacting online, including depositing on their online casino accounts.
These are just some of the more popular services offered by the company, some of which can also be used to deposit money on Canadian online casinos:
Interac e-Transfer
This service is one of the most popular in Canada, allowing transfer or funds between bank accounts. According to the numbers, 9 out of 10 eligible Canadians (e.g. excluding kids, for example) have used the service. In 2021/22, over $388 billion CAD was moved using Interac e-Transfer spread over 1 billion transactions.
Interac Online
As the name suggests, Interac online allows consumers to make online transitions, including gambling deposits, with funds taken directly and instantly from their bank accounts. It makes buying things online speedy and super easy. Between 2019 and 2021, Interac Online saw an increase of 70% in usage.
Interac Flash
For smaller payments, it’s ultra annoying to have to use your chip and pin. To keep convenience high, Interac introduced its Flash services, which lets consumers pay with just a single tap at point of sale.
Of course, the popularity of this service also depends on how many businesses accept tap payments. In 2018, 281,000 businesses have tap compatibility, with that number growing by almost 50k every year.
Interac is Accepted Everywhere
Interac was founded 40 years ago and is embedded in Canadian payment systems. It’s part of the furniture when it comes to Canada’s overall financial infrastructure, being one of the key components of safe, secure, and fast transactions. When online casinos didn’t exist, punters would pay using Interac at their brick and mortar equivalents.
This is why it was absolutely key for Canadian online casinos to integrate Interac as a primary payment method. Most worldwide options limit themselves to Visa, Mastercard, or Discover, for example, which would in this case severely limit the Canadian gambling market, as consumers would perhaps hesitate to use other payment options.
Interac is, bar none, the most popular payment method in the country. It’s accepted by pretty much every retailer, both online and offline. Here are just some examples (gambling or otherwise!):
- Online casinos benefit from widening the payment methods available, otherwise they’ll lose players. For example, many online casinos offer Interac as a primary payment option for Canadians, ensuring safe transaction processing in cooperation with most major banks in Canada.
- Aside from casinos, small businesses like corner stores, florists, or your local butcher also prefer Interac as their payment method. If they accept card payments, it’s almost guaranteed that Interac is one of them.
- Apple and Google Pay. You can link your card with both of these payment options, meaning you can skip taking your wallet or purse out, paying directly from your smartphone. Online casinos are increasingly making this option available to consumers.
Interac Debit Is Secure
Tech is great, but it also comes with lots of fraud. Interac is still the most secure payment option available to Canadians, and the introduction of chip-and-pin technology has been largely responsible for a large drop in card fraud (by over 90% since 2010).
Chip and pin means that you have to put in your PIN code when making POS transactions. It blocks things like counterfeiting, card-not-present transactions, and what’s known as ‘transaction replay’. This is because even if the fraudster has an exact replica of your card, they won’t know your pin (this is why you should always have it stored in your head, not written down somewhere!).
Of course, when making online transactions, you don’t use a chip-and-pin device. Yet the various security measures that Interac has placed for its online transactions mean that you can deposit at your favorite online casino without worry.
On top of that, all losses are covered by Interac. Because the company is so confident in its security, if you do end up becoming a victim of fraud, there’s zero liability on your side.
This means that gamblers trust their transactions with Interac, because if something does go wrong, they’re completely covered. These days, when fraud is absolutely rampant, it’s a huge plus point when making payments.
Interac = Transactions
When a company has lodged itself into an industry, it’s sometimes difficult for it to disappear. Interac was a first mover, which allowed it to nestle itself in the Canadian psyche. When you think of making a payment, whether it’s at an online casino or otherwise, you think of Interac. It’s as ubiquitous as Visa or Mastercard, a brand name that’s synonymous with the service it provides.
For Canadian gamblers, Interac will continue to mean payment, transactions, and banking. And as long as their products meet a certain standard, we see no reason why they’d lose market share. Unless, of course, people actually start using crypto as payment (which it doesn’t look like will happen anytime soon!).
