Want to use Australia's leading real-time online debit payment method to fund your online poker account? That's a smart decision as POLi payments are a fast and secure alternative to PayPal, BPAY and credit cards. With major partners like Qantas, JetStar, Microsoft and Virgin Australia, among others, you know you can count on your payments getting where they need to go.
Available to customers in both Australia and New Zealand, POLi is an online payment option that allows users to directly transfer funds for their online bank account to securely pay for goods and services.
From flights to in-game purchases there are a range of things you can use POLI for and one of those things, importantly, is also online poker (and sportsbetting, but that's for another day).
No registration is needed and as the purchaser (or depositor as it may be) you get directly linked to your bank account to make quick, safe and immediately available poker deposits. No approval, third-party account or credit check is needed. You just securely access your own account and move the funds where you want them to go.
Easy, peasy.
Developed all the way back in 2006 POLI Payments is actually a fully owned subsidiary of Australia Post. It has a home office in Melbourne and is one of the most popular methods of making online payments in both Australia in New Zealand.
It has major authorized partners that use it services from those mentioned above to online bookmakers, casino companies, rail transport and 3rd-party eWallets (Skrill, Neteller) not to mention Twitch.tv and League of Legends.
POLi is a great alternative for anyone who doesn't have a credit card or who wants to avoid using a credit card online. All you have to do is select POLi as your payments method (by a poker site who uses it) and you're immediately and securely linked to your online banking client.
Process your transaction within minutes and you'll be at the tables and playing any poker game you choose.
You don't need one. POLi payments directly connects you to your own bank and allows you to process transaction from your own online banking account straight into your poker account.
No extra account or passwords are required. You're securely connected to your bank (see the list of banks that provide POLi services below) and in complete control of the transaction from beginning to end.
The back end set-up between the merchant (poker site) and your bank is securely encrypted and protected from any type of hacking or interference.
Lots. Here's a list of banks across both Australia and New Zealand that have set-up POLi payments:
If you don't have a bank account at one of these banks you will not be able to use POLi payments for your poker deposits.
The current list of poker sites that directly accept POLi payments include:
If your preferred poker site is either PokerStars or 888poker, you can directly fund your Skrill or Neteller account via POLi payments.
If you have bank account with one of the banks listed above and an account at one of the poker sites listed above, making a POLi deposit is dead simple.
For a poker site that directly accepts POLi payments:
Once you select POLi you will immediately be linked to the secure POLi Payments page. On that page you then:
Your POLi poker deposit should arrive in your poker account within seconds. The balance will be deducted from your account right away. As it is being directly withdrawn from your bank account you can not cancel or withdraw those funds immediately. Any withdrawals from a poker site need to go through the standard withdrawal approval process.
You will also immediately receive a transaction confirmation.
It may seem like there's an element of risk with POLi poker deposits as you are directly accessing your own bank account but actually the opposite is true.
The page you login to your online bank is entirely encrypted and accessible to no one but you. All communication via POLi uses HTTPS transport level security and no sensitive information is stored (or even cached) During a POLi transaction no one can access or see your internet banking login credentials.
POLi also doesn't store any sensitive information including your banking username or password.
Not as of yet. POLi is currently only a one-way deposit mechanism but it does that extremely well. For your best withdrawal option you'll need to check the cashier page of the poker site. Most poker sites will happily process your withdrawal in a number of ways including eWallets, bank transfers or checks.
Excellent question; you can, although there are a few precluding factors.
As of August 2017 the Australian government passed a new bill effectively keeping PokerStars from operating real-money poker games in Australia. It will one day return when licensing for local poker sites has been worked out but that day hasn't arrive yet.
In the meantime you can still play the play-money games on PokerStars, which are actually quite fun. There are hundreds of games and levels to choose from and working your way up the play-money leader board can be a blast.
You can also still purchase items in the PokerStars store and you can still buy play money chips (although the daily chip bonuses of up to 100,000 free chips are usually enough). To fund your account to buy items in the play-money store you will need to use Visa, entropay, Skrill or Neteller, but you can load up your Skrill or Neteller account via POLi payments.
In New Zealand, real-money poker games ARE still available to players and POLi is a payment method accepted by PokerStars!
888poker has also currently withdrawn real-money games in Australia but you can play real-money games in New Zealand. Unfortunately POLi is not listed as a current payment method.
Outside of any restrictions from the poker site, deposits under $500 via POLi are immediately approved. Anything over $500 will require approval from the bank and may take a day or two to process.
Nope, not right now. POLi is currently only available in Australia or New Zealand, although there are plans to expand to other countries in the future. For more on which poker sites are open to US players and what your options for deposits and withdrawals are, check our page here:
Not that we've seen. Both the poker site and the bank waive fees for POLi transactions. POLi even professes that its mission is to make POLi entirely free for its customers so there are no fees involved as of now.
Yep, no concerns there. POLi is browser-based so any smartphone (iPhone or Android) with wireless or Internet can open the required pages to make a POLi poker deposit. It's also very secure, although we'd recommend against doing it on open wifi networks or in crowded places where people could see your log in details.
You are of course eligible for an online poker bonus when you sign up at any poker site and that bonus isn't contingent on the method you use to make your first deposit.
In fact at several online poker sites you can get a no deposit welcome bonus that won't require you to deposit any money into your poker account at all. Playing Free Poker Online is also a good way to help start up a small bankroll online so you never actually need to make a deposit.
If you'd like to take advantage of the usual "match" or percentage bonus many poker sites offer you will need to make a small deposit but you can use any of their accepted payment methods. From time to time poker site may offer exclusive bonuses to players who use one deposit method or another but those are rare.
