⭑Wallet Desk Open the partner account
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Wallet Desk / What it is
The licensed middle

The licensed middle

The wallet is the only party in a gambling payment that is licensed to do nothing but move and hold money. That narrow permission explains almost everything else about it: its fees, its limits, its file of documents and what happens when it stops.

Open the partner accountStart with the fees
Account stub
Its permission
to hold and transmit money, not to lend it
Your balance
a claim on the wallet
Safeguarding
your money kept apart from the wallet’s own money
Insurance
none by default - safeguarding is not a guarantee
Counts as
a second counterparty with its own regulator
the seamOne hop from one ledger to another, each with its own terms and its own fee
the wallet balanceA claim on the wallet, safeguarded and not deposit-insured
the round trip6.86 through a wallet against 4.00 direct, on one sample account
Direct answerA payment wallet is an account with an authorised payment institution or electronic-money institution. Its permission is to hold and transmit money for customers; the balance it holds for you is a claim on the wallet, kept apart from the wallet’s own money, and it is not a bank deposit and not covered by deposit insurance.
The entity an authorised payment or e-money institutionIts supervisor a financial regulator, not a gambling regulatorHolds your balance, as a claim on itMay not lend your balance out, or promise a return on itMust keep customer money apart from its own and tell you how

The permission, and the business model behind it

01

A narrow permission, and why it matters

The permission a wallet holds is narrower than a bank’s. A bank may take deposits and lend them out, which is why a bank balance carries deposit protection and why a bank can earn a margin on your money while it holds it. A wallet may hold money and move it, and it must not put your balance to work. That is the trade the rules make: no lending, no guarantee - safeguarding instead of insurance.

The practical consequence is that a wallet lives on fees. A bank that lends can pay for a free current account out of the margin between borrowing and lending rates. A wallet cannot, so its revenue is the fee schedule, and the fee schedule is therefore not an accident of pricing but the business model.

02

The three things it is not

Almost every misunderstanding about wallets comes from treating it as one of three other things: a bank, an exchange counter, or the operator. It is none of those, and each confusion has a cost.

Three things it is not

Not a bank

Nothing is lent out, nothing is insured to a cap, and a wallet balance is a claim on the wallet rather than a deposit. Its failure mode is a claim on an estate, shortened by safeguarding.

Not a bureau de change

It converts when it must, at a rate it sets, and that rate is a spread rather than the mid-market rate. Conversion is a fee line with a friendlier name.

Not the operator

It cannot settle a bet, void a market, reopen an account or explain a bonus. A wallet dispute and an operator dispute are separate processes on separate clocks.

What the permission allows and requires

  1. The wallet is authorised to hold and transmit money, and its supervisor is a financial regulator rather than a gambling one.
  2. Money you fund it with leaves your bank account and becomes a balance the wallet owes you.
  3. It must keep customer balances apart from its own money, and say how in its terms.
  4. It may not lend your balance, promise a return on it, or use it to fund its own business.

What the wallet earns on the money that passes through it

The wallet’s own book, on an illustrative 400,000 funded wallets money funded in a year 400,000 x 150.00 = 60,000,000.00 top-up revenue at 1.50% 60,000,000.00 x 0.015 = 900,000.00 money sent back out 60,000,000.00 x 0.985 = 59,100,000.00 withdrawal revenue 59,100,000.00 x 0.015 = 886,500.00 total take 900,000.00 + 886,500.00 = 1,786,500.00 take as a share of funded 1,786,500.00 / 60,000,000.00 = 2.98%
Why the take matters to you. A wallet earns 2.98% of the money that passes through it before the money has done anything. A poker rake, a slot margin or a bookmaker’s overround all sit inside a product; this is a charge on the movement itself, which is why it is paid whether the stake wins or loses.
What the balance is

A claim on the wallet, against a claim on the operator.

What it costs

The fee schedule, hop by hop, on one sample account.

If it stops

Safeguarding, run-off, and what is left of the balance.