It never fails to amaze me how companies that make a profit off my business also like to tell me what I can and cannot do. Take Mastercard, for example. Some time ago they decided they no longer wanted to handle online casino transactions and, while I don't gamble online because of where I live, it still pissed me off that they took such a stance. Hey, it's my money and I'll spend it as I damn well please! I did have one Mastercard account, so I paid it off and cut up the card. Screw those guys! Fortunately, it was a CitiBank Mastercard, so when they folded under pressure from the New York State Attorney General and stopped making any online casino charges, I didn't have to burn them in effigy, because I had already stopped doing business with them. Screw them, too.

I like Pay Pal. At least, I used to like Pay Pal. I've had a personal account with them for quite a while and when we began selling my "Blackjack School" on DVD (Got your copy yet? It's a great gift for all occasions: weddings, birthdays, divorces, etc.), we chose Pay Pal as the primary means of making it easy for you to purchase it and the system works well. We even got "verified", which lets you know we aren't a fly-by-night company that may disappear next week. So, the $$$ come in, I get an e-mail about it and mail out your DVD within a few days. Nice and easy.

I've never had a problem with a Pay Pal transaction, either personally or in business, although I've never used it to deposit at an online casino. Now, Pay Pal tells me they've been bought by E-Bay and will not, after some date later this year, offer transactions for Internet gambling. Well, I've always agreed that the joy of owning your own business is to do things as you choose, but at the same time, a business has got to remember that I have choices, too and I retain the right to give my business to whomever I wish. So, goodbye, Pay Pal.

Hello, Neteller. I remember when Neteller came on the scene a few years ago and they had a rather complicated business model that involved, as I recall, a scanning device that you hooked up to your computer so you could swipe your card, like they do at your favorite restaurant. Waaay too complicated, it never got off the ground, so they got smart and basically just went and did what Pay Pal does. Now, Neteller is simple to use, because it's just like Pay Pal. You can get verified, transfer $$$ to and from your bank account and Internet casinos are signing up with Neteller in droves. I'm going to do it, too and we're going to set up an account with them so that you can easily buy the Blackjack School DVD (Did I mention it makes a great gift?).

A lot of people are afraid to let some company they don't know have important information like your checking account number, so they've pretty well convinced themselves that this isn't for them. But you need to remember that you're not giving Neteller any more information than you're already giving anyone to whom you send one of your checks, because that's how it all works, like an electronic checking account. To be sure, they'll need some other snippets of information, like your name, address and so on, but try to get over the idea that one of these electronic banking companies is going to clean out your account and leave you destitute. Believe me, if that's what they plan to do, they're going to pick people with bigger bank balances than you and me.

I'll tell you who needs to be afraid of companies like Neteller, though. It's those who want to make a deposit at a casino, gamble and then yell, "Cheat!" and ask for their $$$ back. With a credit card, it was actually fairly simple, because most banks will almost always side with the card holder so it was fairly easy to scam the casinos by doing a charge-back, at least for a few times, anyway. Because Neteller operates with cash, it won't be very easy to pull something like that off. On the other hand, a player that uses Neteller has very little protection against a casino that refuses to pay a winner. Not good.

So, it becomes obvious that you should do business only with casinos that have earned good reputations and, because you're now operating with cash (although you can fund your Neteller account with a credit card), you should gamble wisely. But look at it this way, at least you won't have any "sticker shock" when you open your next credit card statement. Playing at a casino with honest-to-goodness risk capital is the only way to go and, while it may slow down your activity for a while, you'll be a better player for it.

Okay, what are you waiting for? Get on over to www.neteller.com and start the ball rolling before somebody else comes along and tries to tell you what you can or cannot do with your $$$.