By John Brooks
At a land-based casino, money moves through the cage and across the casino floor. Staff take cash, pay out winnings and manage player accounts in person, and machines and kiosks handle the rest. Online play needs a cashier that does the same jobs on a screen. In that cashier, deposits, identity and location checks, and payouts are handled by payment partners the property brings in.
Some of those partners connect the two sides, so a player can use one account or one bank enrollment at the property and online. Others handle online payments only and leave the cage and the floor to the property’s existing vendors.
| Partner | At the property | Online deposits | Payouts |
| Trustly | Scan & Pay at machines and tables | Pay by bank | RTP, FedNow, same-day ACH |
| Nuvei | None | Cards, bank transfers | Debit cards and bank rails |
| Pavilion Payments | One ACH enrollment used at the cage and online, plus Tap2Play at machines and tables | ACH and online banking | Instant payments over RTP and FedNow |
| Finix | None | Cards and bank payments | Debit cards and ACH |
| Sightline Payments | Cashless slot floor, plus Sightline Deposit at slots and ticket kiosks | Prepaid account | Winnings to the account, plus a Visa debit card |
1. Trustly (casino floor and online)
Trustly is one of the three partners here that work on the casino floor as well as online. It runs pay by bank, which moves money straight from a player’s checking account, and it offers that same rail in both places.
The draw for a property is one payment option shared by the floor and the website. Trustly Scan & Pay lets a player scan a QR code at a slot machine or table and fund play from their bank account in under 60 seconds, with no player app, loyalty account or KYC check needed at the machine. KYC, short for know your customer, is the identity check that usually comes before a first deposit. The casino receives what Trustly calls a guaranteed payment.
Online, the same bank rail handles deposits through Trustly Pay and sends winnings back through Trustly Payouts, over RTP, FedNow or same-day ACH. When a new player signs up online, Trustly ID can run the identity and fraud checks that staff would handle at the cage. A property can therefore launch its website with a bank option players may already have used at the machines.
2. Nuvei (online only)
Nuvei handles online payments only. It offers card acquiring and bank payments for online operators, and nothing for the cage or the casino floor.
For a property whose online cashier needs both cards and US bank transfers, Nuvei covers both from one partner. The chief executive of Resorts Digital Gaming calls Nuvei Instant Bank Transfer one of the most popular and convenient deposit and payout methods in the US iGaming market. Delaware North is another Nuvei gaming customer. Withdrawals can go to debit cards, or back to the player’s bank over rails that include RTP for real-time payouts.
A property that wants its online accounts tied to the cage or to cashless play on the floor will need another partner for that part.
What moves online and what stays at the cage
Going online moves several cage jobs to a screen. Deposits, withdrawals and the player account all move into the online cashier, along with the identity checks that the cage handles face to face. Payouts change form too, from cash at the window to a transfer to a bank account or debit card. A guest used to leaving with cash now waits on that transfer, so payout speed is one of the first things online players notice. Geolocation, the check that confirms a player is physically inside an approved area, has no counterpart at the cage because the player is already standing in the building.
Other jobs stay on the property. Cash buy-ins, ticket redemption at kiosks and the staff who know regular players remain at the cage and on the floor, and most online partners do not touch them.
The link between the two sides is where partners differ most. Pavilion Payments, Sightline Payments and Trustly each offer a way for one enrollment or one account to work at the property and online. Nuvei and Finix focus on the online cashier, and Finix’s casino payment solutions [1] are built for online casino and sportsbook operators.
A property usually settles this first, because it decides how many partners the launch needs. A partner that works at the property covers the link, and an online-only partner leaves it to someone else.
3. Pavilion Payments (cage and online)
Pavilion Payments [2] covers the cage, the floor and online play. It works only in gaming, has been in business for 20 years and runs VIP Preferred, its own ACH network for casino guests. Its VIP LightSpeed platform links online play with play at the property.
With Pavilion, guests can bring their cage relationship online. Pavilion says its ACH network is available across more than 350 North American casinos and online, so a guest can fund online play without registering again and with the same limits and terms they already have at the cage. A single VIP Online account can link to four checking accounts.
On the floor, Tap2Play now supports Apple Pay for funding play at machines and tables. For the property itself, Pavilion also provides cash advances, kiosks and ATMs, and it handles Title 31 anti-money-laundering compliance. The cage and vault director at Lucky Star Casino vouches for it, and in August 2026 Pavilion was named the cash access and compliance partner for Happy Valley Casino [3].
Online, Pavilion’s funding runs on ACH and bank rails, so card acceptance for an online casino would come from another partner.
4. Finix (online only)
Finix is an online-only partner like Nuvei. Online casinos and slots are one of the gaming lines it serves, and it runs deposits and payouts for them on a single platform. Players can deposit by card, e-wallet or ACH. For a property used to paying winners at the cage window, the payout side matters most, and Finix pays winnings to debit cards in near real time.
Finix has no product for land-based or tribal casinos, so nothing it offers reaches the floor or the cage.
5. Sightline Payments (slot floor and online)
Sightline Payments [4] works at the property and online, like Pavilion, and its history is in cashless play on the slot floor. One patron account covers slots, tables, sportsbook, iGaming and lottery, and Sightline works with more than 60 gaming partners. Sightline ran the first slot floor with cashless deposits and withdrawals in 2015, and its Sightline Deposit product gives casinos daily access to cash sitting idle in online slot machines and ticket-in, ticket-out kiosks. In 2022 it asked the Nevada Gaming Commission to allow remote identity checks, which is the step that lets a player sign up without visiting the cage. It is not a card acquirer and doesn’t mention chargeback tools, so a property needs another partner for both.
What a property still needs after picking a partner
A property that picks a partner working at the property still needs online card processing, unless it plans to launch with bank and prepaid payments only. Nuvei or Finix can fill that gap. Both take card deposits online, and Nuvei also brings bank transfers, which may overlap with a bank-based floor partner the property already uses.
A property that starts with an online-only partner has the opposite gap. Its online players and its floor guests will have separate accounts until it adds a partner such as Pavilion, Sightline or Trustly’s Scan & Pay to connect them. The order matters less than knowing the gap at signing, since a property can launch with one kind of partner and add the other later.
A few questions are outside what any payment partner can answer. Whether a property may offer online play in a given state or on tribal land depends on its license, its compact where one applies, and the regulator [5]. Those answers come from the property’s counsel and compliance team before any partner is signed.
Sources
- [1] https://finix.com/industry/gaming
- [2] https://pavilionpayments.com/igaming
- [3] https://www.intergameonline.com/land-based-gaming/news/pavilion-announces-happy-valley-partnership
- [4] https://sightlinepayments.com/
- [5] https://www.scotusblog.com/2023/10/court-lets-florida-tribe-continue-with-online-sports-betting/
This content is provided for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional advice. AFP editorial staff were not involved in the creation of this content. If you or someone you know is struggling with a gambling problem, a helpline is available at 1-888-532-3500.
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