I have a PayPal account, can I use that to fund my PartyPoker / etc account?

In the past, Paypal was a popular payment method that gamblers used in the past, as players only needed to reveal financial information to Paypal, and not the sites themseleves. Paypal was also popular because many people already have Paypal accounts thanks to eBay. However, Paypal was charged in 2003 of violating the Patriot Act by acting as an intermediary for illegal offshore gaming and had to pay the State of New York $200,000 in penalties and agree to stop all gambling transactions starting September 1st.

If you read the above section about EFTs and opening a new bank account, you may wish to do this for your Paypal account also, even though Paypal is no longer related to online gambling. Why you ask? Paypal has a history of bilking their customers and even raiding their bank accounts! You can read more about it at: http://www.paypalsucks.com

(As an added note, eBay, the company that purchased Paypal in 2002, has an interesting privacy policy that may interest some people. The quote is from Joseph Sullivan, director of law enforcement and compliance at eBay:

"I don't know another Web site that has a privacy policy as flexible as eBay's."

"...if you are a law-enforcement officer, all you have to do is send us a fax with a request for information, and ask about the person behind the seller's identity number, and we will provide you with his name, address, sales history and other details - all without having to produce a court order. We want law enforcement people to spend time on our site."

"[eBay will send] the history of items he has browsed, feedbacks received, bids he has made, prices he has paid, and even messages sent in the site's various discussion groups,"

"PayPal has about 20 million customers, which means that we have 20 millions files on its users. If you contact me, I will hook you up with the Paypal people. They will help you get the information you're looking for."
- Source, Kuro5hin.org

NEXT: I've heard that the online poker sites are rigged. Is this true?

PREVIOUS: If I decide to play at PartyPoker / Pacific Poker / etc, what deposit option should I use?