Payment Methods by Market in 2026: Why Half the Lists You Read Are Out of Date

Payment-method comparisons age badly, and the gambling niche recycles them for years after the underlying rails have changed. The clearest example: a great many pages still list giropay as a German payment option. It no longer exists. Its operator switched it off on 31 December 2024.

Below is what is actually running in five markets as of August 2026, what the local gambling regulator permits, and the primary source for each claim.

Germany: giropay is gone, Wero is what replaced it

paydirekt GmbH announced the closure in a press release dated 1 July 2024:

“Die paydirekt GmbH wird giropay, das Online-Bezahlverfahren der deutschen Banken und Sparkassen, zum 31.12.2024 einstellen.”

(paydirekt GmbH will discontinue giropay, the online payment method of German banks and savings banks, as of 31 December 2024.)

A follow-up notice dated 19 December 2024 confirmed execution: payments ceased, the customer portal ran only until 31 January 2025 and the merchant portal until 28 February 2025, and “die paydirekt GmbH… wird im Laufe des Jahres 2025 abgewickelt” — the company itself was wound up during 2025. At shutdown giropay had “mehr als 8 Millionen aktive Nutzer:innen.” (Primary source: paydirekt/giropay newsroom, archived at the Internet Archive; the live domain now redirects to a dead page.)

One nuance worth keeping straight, because it produces conflicting dates in circulation: major payment service providers stopped onboarding and processing giropay from 30 June 2024 — Stripe’s documentation states “no new business onboarding or transactions will be possible after June 30, 2024” — while the scheme itself ended on 31 December 2024. Any source giving a single date has merged two different events.

The successor is Wero, from the European Payments Initiative, launched by 18 banks and financial service companies. Wero went live for e-commerce in Germany on 17 November 2025, when EPI reported “more than 46 million European users”; by the Belgian e-commerce launch in March 2026 that figure was 51.8 million (EPI newsroom).

For what Germans actually use online, the Bundesbank’s Zahlungsverhalten in Deutschland 2025, published 17 June 2026, is blunt: “Im Internet entfallen 50 % der Bezahlvorgänge und 32 % des Umsatzes auf Internetbezahlverfahren, insbesondere Paypal” — half of all online payments go through internet payment methods, PayPal above all. The same study records that more than half of everyday payments were cashless for the first time, at 55% against 49% in 2023 (Deutsche Bundesbank).

The Netherlands: iDEAL is being folded into Wero

Not one of our five focus markets, but the structural story that explains the others. EPI acquired Currence iDEAL B.V. on 31 October 2023, and in October 2025 set out the migration: from early 2026 the iDEAL logo becomes a combined “iDEAL | Wero” mark, and “in October 2026, all Dutch issuing banks will be connected to Wero,” gated on approval from De Nederlandsche Bank (EPI). iDEAL’s scale at that point: “more than 1.5 billion transactions annually,” “approximately 72% of all e-commerce transactions.”

Portugal: MB WAY, Multibanco, and a legal-tender rule that excludes crypto

SIBS operates both Multibanco and MB WAY. Its 2024 annual report records that MB WAY “ultrapassando os 6 milhões de utilizadores,” passing six million users in October 2024, with SIBS transaction volumes up around 15% on the year (SIBS, Relatório e Contas 2024).

The gambling-specific rule is the interesting part. Article 42 of Decree-Law 66/2015, the Portuguese online gambling regime, states:

“Nas operações de jogos e apostas online apenas são admitidos instrumentos de pagamento eletrónicos que utilizem moeda com curso legal em Portugal.”

(In online gaming and betting operations, only electronic payment instruments using currency that is legal tender in Portugal are permitted.)

Article 42(2) additionally requires payment instruments from authorised providers that “permitam a correta identificação do ordenante da operação de pagamento” — that allow correct identification of the payer. Read together, those two paragraphs exclude crypto and exclude anonymous or third-party-funded instruments as a matter of law, not operator policy. Article 40 adds one account per player per site, no negative balances, and no transfers between player accounts (SRIJ consolidated text).

Italy: a rebuilt licensing regime with a payout clock

Italy retendered its remote gambling concessions under Legislative Decree 41/2024. ADM’s administrative rules set the terms: a concession lasting “nove anni, non rinnovabile,” a one-off payment of “sette milioni di euro per ogni concessione,” and a maximum of five concessions per participant or group (ADM — Regole Amministrative).

ADM’s award determination of 17 September 2025 records that by the 30 May 2025 deadline “sono state presentate n. 46 domande di partecipazione da parte di altrettanti operatori” — 46 operators applied and were awarded (ADM determination 594211).

Two payment obligations in those rules deserve wider attention because no other market in this list writes them down so plainly:

Account opening requires a valid identity document or a recognised second-level digital identity, and all credits and debits must use instruments “idonei a garantire la tracciabilità dei flussi finanziari.”
Winnings must be credited “non oltre un’ora dalla certificazione ufficiale del verificarsi dell’evento” — no later than one hour after official certification of the winning event — and withdrawals honoured “entro e non oltre sette giorni dalla richiesta,” within seven days of request.

A seven-day statutory backstop is not a fast payout by marketing standards. It is, however, an enforceable one.

Greece: a closed list of payment methods — including credit cards

Greece names its permitted instruments explicitly. Article 25.3 of the Online Gaming Regulation (Ministerial Decision 79835/ΕΞ2020) provides:

“The depositing of the wager and withdrawal of the credit balance by the Player shall be done using one or more of the following means of payment: a. Remittance b. Bank transfer c. Credit card d. Debit card e. Prepaid card f. E-wallet”

Note item (c). Greece permits credit cards for gambling, where Great Britain prohibits them. Article 25.4 bans third-party instruments outright, adding that where such use is confirmed, funds are returned to the payment instrument holder “and any winnings shall not be paid over” (HGC — Online Gaming Regulation, English text).

Separately, Greek instant payments have scaled sharply. DIAS reports that IRIS handled “111.4 million transactions in 2025,” a “90% year-on-year increase,” with “4.3 million registered users” by December 2025 (DIAS statistics 2025). IRIS is not named in the HGC list above, so whether it qualifies as a “bank transfer” for gambling purposes is our inference, not the regulator’s statement.

United Kingdom: no credit cards, and pay-by-bank at scale

Since 14 April 2020, LCCP licence condition 6.1.2 has provided that “licensees must not accept payment for gambling by credit card,” including via a money service business (UKGC).

Open banking is now the fastest-growing alternative. Open Banking Limited reported on 29 January 2026 that UK open banking payments “climbed to 351 million, a 57% increase,” with “user connections reached 16.5 million by December up from 12.1 million a year earlier” (Open Banking Limited). Trustly is the provider most often surfaced in gambling cashiers on that rail; its coverage and conversion figures are its own marketing claims and should be read as such.

The comparison

Market	Dominant online rails	Credit cards for gambling	Notable legal constraint
UK	Debit cards, e-wallets, open banking (351m payments in 2025)	Prohibited (LCCP 6.1.2, 14 Apr 2020)	Ban extends to credit-funded e-wallets
Germany	PayPal and internet payment methods (50% of online payments); Wero since Nov 2025	Not prohibited by the payment rules cited here	giropay ceased 31 Dec 2024
Italy	Cards (ECB: card-first online)	Not prohibited by the rules cited here	Traceable instruments; winnings within 1 hour, withdrawals within 7 days
Portugal	Multibanco, MB WAY (6m+ users)	Not prohibited by the rules cited here	Legal-tender currency only; payer must be identifiable
Greece	Cards; IRIS instant payments growing fast	Permitted (Art. 25.3)	Closed list of instruments; no third-party payment methods

Euro-area context from the ECB’s SPACE 2024 study (published December 2024): cash was still used in 52% of point-of-sale transactions, while online “e-payment solutions were by far the most frequent way to pay… in the Netherlands (76%)… Germany (46%) and Portugal (33%),” with cards remaining the most frequent online instrument in the remaining euro-area countries — which covers Italy and Greece (ECB SPACE 2024).

What we could not verify

Wero’s live status in the Netherlands is contradictory in EPI’s own estate. Its newsroom announced a January 2026 Dutch launch; its consumer site still described the Netherlands as planned “in 2026” when we checked on 1 August 2026. We report the contradiction rather than resolving it.
Per-country point-of-sale splits for Italy, Portugal and Greece exist in SPACE 2024 only as chart images, not extractable text, so we have not estimated them. Banco de Portugal’s 2025 payment systems report was not retrievable either.
Deutsche Kreditwirtschaft’s own statement on giropay’s closure could not be fetched; the operator’s press releases are cited instead.
Whether IRIS qualifies as a permitted gambling deposit method in Greece is our inference from the “bank transfer” category, not a statement by the regulator.

Frequently asked questions

Can I still use giropay?

No. paydirekt GmbH discontinued giropay on 31 December 2024, payments and the app stopped working, the merchant portal closed on 28 February 2025 and the company was wound up during 2025. Any page still listing it as a current option is out of date.

What replaced giropay in Germany?

Wero, from the European Payments Initiative. It launched for e-commerce in Germany on 17 November 2025, and EPI reported 51.8 million European users at its Belgian e-commerce launch in March 2026.

Is iDEAL being discontinued in the Netherlands?

It is being migrated rather than switched off. EPI, which acquired iDEAL in October 2023, has said the logo becomes a combined “iDEAL | Wero” mark from early 2026 and that all Dutch issuing banks will be connected to Wero in October 2026, subject to approval from De Nederlandsche Bank.

Can I use a credit card to gamble in Greece?

Yes. Article 25.3 of the Greek Online Gaming Regulation lists credit cards among the permitted means of payment. This differs from Great Britain, where licence condition 6.1.2 has prohibited gambling by credit card since 14 April 2020.

Why can’t I use crypto at a Portuguese-licensed site?

Because Article 42 of Decree-Law 66/2015 admits only electronic payment instruments using currency that is legal tender in Portugal, and requires that the payer be correctly identifiable. That is a statutory restriction rather than an operator preference.

Sources

Related reading: our open banking explainer, Trustly guide and bank transfer casinos guide.

Responsible gambling

A faster or more convenient payment rail removes friction from depositing and nothing else. Deposit limits and bank-level gambling blocks work regardless of which method your market favours.

If gambling is affecting you or someone you know, contact GamCare on 0808 8020 133 (free, 24/7) or visit BeGambleAware.org. UK players can self-exclude across all UKGC-licensed operators via GAMSTOP. You must be 18+ to gamble.

Editorial analysis. 18+. Please gamble responsibly.