PayNearMe Review
7.6/10US-only money transmitter behind MoneyLine, running guaranteed cash deposits at 62,000+ retail stores plus cards, ACH, PayPal, and Venmo for state-licensed operators, with 46 money-transmitter licenses published across two NMLS entities and cash deposits running for 9 of the 10 largest US operators (2023).
Our read
The cash network plus cards, ACH, PayPal, Venmo, Apple Pay, and Google Pay covers the full US method set, scored inside a deliberately single-country, USD-only book.
46 state money-transmitter licenses published with numbers (Jul 2026) plus NJ and PA gaming registrations, the deepest published stack in US gaming payments.
Public versioned docs, hosted and embedded and API modes, and documented enterprise plumbing, held back by keys that arrive only after sales contact and a connector map that names Amelco alone (2022).
Five ACH cycles a day with Same-Day ACH, push-to-debit in minutes, and cardless ATM cash (Jul 2026), while Venmo and Cash at Cage payouts still wear coming-soon labels.
Seventeen years, a clean incident record, and tier-one names, offset by client aggregates dated 2023 and a consumer-facing brand surface at the store counter.
Nothing is published: no pricing, no reserves, no SLA, only a preferred-pricing pass-through pitch for emerging operators.
Methodology. Our own score, a weighted average of six dimensions, tilted toward licensing and coverage. Weighted on the US-regulated scale, where licensing and compliance carry the most (0.26) and coverage comes second (0.20), a fit for a vendor whose published license stack and cash network are the substance while the commercials stay dark. Read the full methodology
- Cash at 62,000+ stores (7-Eleven, CVS, Walgreens, Walmart, Kroger, Dollar General and more, Jul 2026) with funds guaranteed and zero chargebacks, a deposit rail no US competitor matches at this scale.
- 46 state money-transmitter licenses across 42 states plus DC, published with their license numbers (Jul 2026), rare transparency for gaming payments.
- One contract covers the whole cashier: cash, cards, ACH, PayPal and Venmo (live since 2022), Apple Pay, Google Pay, plus payouts, through MoneyLine since October 2021.
- Redundancy shipped as product: Smart Switch reroutes card volume across multiple partner processors in seconds (Mar 2024), extended to ACH in 2025, with a PayPal full-stack leg added Oct 2024.
- Payouts players can feel: push-to-debit in minutes, near-instant Cardless Cash at ATM, and Same-Day ACH within five daily processing cycles (Jul 2026).
- Public, versioned developer docs with 35+ endpoints and an iGaming v3.0 section, plus Trustly-underwritten Guaranteed ACH that takes NSF risk off bank deposits.
- Total commercial opacity: no pricing, no rate ranges, no reserve terms, and no published SLA or uptime number anywhere, with the reliability marketing running since 2019 without a figure.
- A money transmitter and gateway rather than an acquirer, so card pricing and approval control sit a processor away, and Smart Switch mitigates outages without touching economics.
- The headline client math (9 of 10 largest US operators, 16 of 17 largest online casinos) is dated 2023 with no fresher aggregate published, and the named-client roster runs on announcements from 2021-2024.
- Payout gaps in mid-2026: Venmo payouts and Cash at Cage both still say coming soon (Jul 2026), and Cash App Pay sits in the platform but off the published iGaming method lists.
- The brand is consumer-facing at the counter: the same PayNearMe name serves bill-pay consumers with convenience fees and compliance holds, and that consumer-side experience sits next to an operator's brand wherever players meet the rails.
US state-licensed sportsbooks, iCasinos, and ADW brands that want the cash-preferring player, one payments contract from deposit to payout, and processor redundancy, at tier-one scale or as a single-state launch.
Anyone outside US-regulated markets, crypto-first brands, operators that want a branded consumer wallet and loyalty layer (Sightline's lane), and buyers who need direct acquiring economics or published pricing before the first call.
Markets & licensing
PayNearMe publishes what most gaming payment vendors hide: a state-by-state money-transmitter table with license numbers, 46 licenses across 42 states plus DC as of July 2026. The stack splits between PayNearMe MT, Inc. (NMLS 957940, six licenses holding New York, New Jersey, and Florida) and PayNearMe Financial, Inc. (NMLS 2642362, forty licenses, visibly the newer build with 2025 issue dates in Iowa and Rhode Island). Gaming-side registrations add New Jersey (Mar 2020), Pennsylvania (Feb 2026), and Arkansas (May 2022), with the Michigan, Arizona, Mississippi, and Wyoming approvals named at the October 2021 MoneyLine launch.
No US gaming payments rival publishes a license stack this deep: 46 money-transmitter licenses with numbers (Jul 2026), the hardest states (NY, NJ, FL) held by the older MT entity, and gaming registrations in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Eight states sit off the table, including Montana, which has no money-transmitter statute at all, and the cash product runs wherever PayNearMe is licensed or authorized, so agent and exemption models cover part of the remainder.
No UK entity, no FCA authorization, and no international plan at all: PayNearMe is US-only by design, and its cash network, license stack, and product decisions all assume state-regulated American gaming. Operators with UK or EEA books should look at the open-banking and eCash specialists in this directory instead.
- PayNearMe MT, Inc. (NMLS 957940)United States (6 states)
- The older transmitter entity, holding the hardest registers: New York, New Jersey, and Florida plus Connecticut, Louisiana, and Washington · NY(NYDFS 103518) · NJ(1300048_C22) · FL(FT230000079) · CT(MT-957940) · LA(957940) · WA(550-MT-75028)
- PayNearMe Financial, Inc. (NMLS 2642362)United States (39 states + DC)
- The newer stack being built out under the Financial entity, with 2025 issue dates visible in Iowa (2025-0095) and Rhode Island (20254935CT) · 40 licenses (Jul 2026) · CA(DFPI 2750) · TX(3557) · PA(115198)
- New Jersey DGE ancillary listingNew Jersey
- Internet Gaming Ancillary Companies list entry for Paynearme Mt., Inc · Listed Mar 17, 2020
- Pennsylvania PGCB registrationPennsylvania
- Approved Registered Gaming Service Provider in the state where Mohegan Digital runs PayNearMe as exclusive payments provider (2024) · Registered as of Feb 18, 2026
- Arkansas Racing Commission approvalArkansas
- MoneyLine approved for licensed operators statewide, first live with BetSaracen · May 19, 2022 · 245 in-state cash locations at launch
- MoneyLine launch-state approvalsMichigan, Arizona, Mississippi, Wyoming
- Named as the most recent iGaming approvals at the platform launch · Oct 4, 2021 · 15 states approved in total at launch
Licensing tier: Depth without international breadth: 46 published transmitter licenses beat anything else in US gaming payments, with gaming registrations in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Arkansas on top.
The cash product runs in every legal US state where PayNearMe is licensed or authorized (Jul 2026), which means agent and exemption models cover states missing from the license table.
No restricted-market list exists because there is nothing outside the United States to restrict.
Methods & rails
What you can reach
A2A rails
Card schemes
Flagship local methods
Payout rails
Processing features
Integrations & engineering
One contract and one API instead of a separate deal per studio, feed, or PSP. Here's what connects, how fast, and on what stack.
Everything funnels through one integration and one contract: the hosted cashier out of the box, the Embedded Client when the operator keeps its own UI, or the straight REST API with webhook callbacks. Cash, cards, ACH, PayPal, Venmo, Apple Pay, and Google Pay ride the same connection, Smart Switch spreads card and ACH volume across multiple partner processors behind the scenes, and the Trustly Lightbox renders inside the Embedded Client for Guaranteed ACH. Payouts run over dedicated disbursement endpoints, and reconciliation lands in a single file across cash and electronic.
No public claim for iGaming. The setup guides cover sandbox and production end to end, while marketing stops at get-to-market-fast language, so the real calendar comes out of the sales process.
Products & tools
One contract spans the rails: the 62,000-store cash network, cards behind Smart Switch redundancy, ACH with a Trustly guarantee, PayPal and Venmo, and payout rails from push-to-debit to cardless ATM cash, all through the MoneyLine platform.
MoneyLine Deposits & Payouts
The iGaming product since October 2021: one API and one contract behind cash, cards, ACH, PayPal, Venmo, Apple Pay, and Google Pay on the deposit side, with push-to-debit, Same-Day ACH, PayPal, and Cardless Cash at ATM on the payout side.
- Nine deposit methods on the published list (Jul 2026), including Cash at Retail by barcode and Cash at Cage
- PayPal and Venmo deposits live since 2022, restated in the Oct 2024 PayPal release
- Guaranteed ACH underwritten by Trustly, removing NSF risk from bank deposits
- Smart Link personalized deposit links over SMS, email, push, and QR
- Approved to operate iGaming transactions in 15 states at launch (Oct 2021), reaching 25 markets by 2023
Cash at 62,000+ Retail Locations
Barcode cash deposits at 7-Eleven, CVS, Walgreens, Walmart, Kroger, Dollar General, Family Dollar, and Casey's General Store, guaranteed once the register scans, with zero chargebacks by design.
- 62,000+ US locations (Jul 2026), up from 60,000+ in 2023
- Operator notified of a guaranteed transaction within minutes of the store scan
- Cash cannot be canceled or charged back once the register scans it
- Aggregated over Green Dot Network and InComm Payments rails: Walgreens joined Mar 2022, Dollar General Aug 2023, Walmart via a Green Dot expansion
- Cash deposits for 9 of the 10 largest US operators and 16 of the 17 largest online casinos (2023, still the standing figure in Jul 2026)
Smart Switch Processing Redundancy
Launched March 5, 2024: PayNearMe onboards each client to multiple third-party merchant processors under a single integration and contract, then reroutes card volume in seconds during outages, with ACH redundancy added in 2025.
- Card-processing failover across multiple partner processors (Mar 2024)
- PayPal full-stack processing joined as an added processing leg in Oct 2024
- ACH redundancy and additional bank partnerships added in 2025
- One contract and one integration across every underlying processor
- The substance behind a reliability pitch that has never published an uptime number
Developer Platform & Guaranteed ACH
Fully public, versioned developer docs (PayNearMe for iGaming v3.0) with 35+ REST endpoints, sandbox setup guides, an Embedded Client, and the Trustly-underwritten Guaranteed ACH flow documented in the open.
- REST API, JSON over POST: orders, payment methods, payments, disbursements, notifications
- Hosted cashier, Embedded Client JS/iframe, or straight API with webhook callbacks (XML or JSON)
- Guaranteed ACH: the Trustly Lightbox renders inside the Embedded Client with funds guaranteed for gaming operators
- Enterprise plumbing documented: SFTP and AWS Transfer exchange, Okta and Azure SSO configs, Business Rules engine, Insights dashboards
- An llms.txt index added by 2026, unusual doc hygiene for gaming payments
The history
Sales decks get rewritten for every deal. A dated record doesn't.
Danny Shader started the company in 2009 as Kwedit, with Apple veteran Steve Capps among the earliest team, and relaunched it in 2010 as PayNearMe: cash handed over a 7-Eleven counter, credited to an online account. The network stayed cash-only until October 2018, when debit, credit, and ACH arrived, and the mid-2010s Handle Financial holding era (including the 2016 Prism bill-pay acquisition) gave way back to the PayNearMe, Inc. name by 2019. iGaming has been a vertical since 2013, MoneyLine turned it into a platform business in October 2021, and the current shape is a $200M-plus revenue private company (QIC-led Series D in 2023, AVP Series E in 2025) serving about 20,000 businesses across nine verticals, of which gaming is one flagship among several.
Brands & clients on the platform
Corporate
- Prism Money (2016)
Leadership
Milestones
- 2009-2010
Danny Shader founds the company as Kwedit (2009), then pivots it to PayNearMe (2010): cash paid at a 7-Eleven register, credited online, with 7-Eleven as the first retail chain.
- 2013
Enters iGaming, the vertical it has served continuously since.
- 2016-2018
Acquires the Prism bill-pay app (May 2016) during the Handle Financial holding era, then adds debit, credit, and ACH in October 2018, ending the cash-only years.
- 2019
Ten-year mark under the restored PayNearMe, Inc. name: 27,000 storefronts and 5,000+ clients.
- 2021
MoneyLine launches at G2E Las Vegas (Oct 4) with PlayLive! in Pennsylvania as the first named adopter, approval to operate in 15 states, and an SBC Awards shortlist for Payment Solution of the Year.
- 2022
Walgreens joins via Green Dot (Mar, network past 40,000 locations), PayPal and Venmo deposits go live, and Arkansas approves MoneyLine for the BetSaracen launch on Amelco (May).
- 2023
The $45M QIC-led Series D closes (Jun), Cash App Pay ships for billers (Jul), Dollar General pushes the network past 60,000 stores via InComm (Aug), and Tipico US consolidates onto MoneyLine (Oct).
- 2024
Smart Switch card-processing redundancy launches (Mar 5), Mohegan Digital signs PayNearMe as exclusive Pennsylvania payments provider (Apr 30), and PayPal full-stack processing integrates (Oct 3).
- 2025
The platform takes the PayXM name, Smart Switch extends to ACH redundancy, a Dallas-area office opens, the $50M AVP Series E closes (Sep 16), and Business Rules wins at the PayTech Awards USA.
- 2026
The Feb 11 results release puts revenue past $200M (+60% YoY), $50B+ annual volume, and about 20,000 business clients, and Niall Hayes arrives as Chief Development Officer, EVP Engineering (Apr 22).
Where they're pushing next
- New US states as they regulate (the Oct 2021 launch cohort added MI, AZ, MS, WY)
- Payout rails: Venmo and Cash at Cage still said coming soon in Jul 2026
- Non-gaming verticals (lending, tolling, credit unions) that fund the platform roadmap
Awards & recognition
Longevity and ownership
Switching vendors is expensive, which makes the company's staying power part of the purchase. What the contract says about your data decides how expensive an exit gets.
PayNearMe vs alternatives
No two vendors describe themselves the same way, which makes their own claims hard to line up. Every name here answers the same fields, so you can see where this one sits against the closest alternatives.
| Attribute | PayNearMe | Sightline Payments | Aeropay |
|---|---|---|---|
| Founded | 2009 | 2010 | 2017 |
| Team | 230+ | 81+ | 60+ |
| US market | Available | Available | Available |
| Pricing | Not published | On request | On request |
| Methods | 9+ | — | 1+ |
| Currencies | 1+ | 1+ | 1+ |
| Settlement | Not published as a merchant SLA | Not published | Same-day ACH batches to the merchant by default (Jul 2026) |
| Instant payouts | Yes | Yes | Yes |
The take: Sightline is the gaming-native contrast, wrapping operators in the Play+ wallet and loyalty layer that PayNearMe deliberately does without, while PayNearMe answers with the cash network and a far deeper published license stack. Aeropay fights the pay-by-bank lane, where PayNearMe's counter is Trustly-underwritten Guaranteed ACH inside one broader contract. Pick PayNearMe when cash-preferring players, a single payments contract, and processor redundancy outweigh published pricing and direct acquiring economics.
Settlement & commercials
PayNearMe prices per deal, so exact figures land in the contract rather than on a public rate card.
Sales-gated end to end: no per-transaction rates, setup, monthly, minimums, or reserve terms published for operators
Everything commercial happens inside the deal: PayNearMe publishes no rates, reserves, settlement terms, or contract norms for operators. What is public stops at a one-contract consolidation pitch and preferred pricing passed through from partner processors. Consumer convenience fees exist on the bill-pay side and vary by biller, while gaming operators typically absorb deposit costs. No lock-in or termination terms are public either.
The deal
Money movement
Onboarding path
- 1Contact iGaming sales (sales@paynearme.com), since pricing, reserves, and every commercial term exists only inside the deal
- 2Map your states against the two-entity license table and the gaming-vendor registrations, and clear KYB with the money-transmitter compliance stack
- 3Get sandbox credentials through account setup: the public guides cover environments, API key pairs, and authentication signatures
- 4Pick the integration depth: hosted cashier out of the box, Embedded Client inside your own cashier, or straight API with webhooks
- 5Enable methods per state: cash barcode plus cage, cards under Smart Switch, Guaranteed ACH, PayPal, Venmo, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and the payout set
- 6Wire reconciliation (one file across cash and electronic, over SFTP or AWS Transfer), set Business Rules, and go live state by state with your Technical Account Manager
Support & account management
You can't demo service before you sign, so what a vendor puts in writing is the only floor you can hold it to.
Frequently asked
The things operators actually ask before signing.
Which states is PayNearMe licensed in, and under which entity?+
The table (Jul 2026) shows 46 money-transmitter licenses across 42 states plus DC, split between PayNearMe MT, Inc. (NMLS 957940, six licenses including New York 103518, New Jersey 1300048_C22, and Florida FT230000079) and PayNearMe Financial, Inc. (NMLS 2642362, forty licenses). Eight states sit off the table, including Montana, which has no money-transmitter statute, and the cash product runs wherever PayNearMe is licensed or authorized, so agent and exemption models cover part of the gap. Gaming-side registrations appear on the New Jersey DGE ancillary list (Mar 2020) and Pennsylvania's PGCB service-provider report (updated Feb 2026), with Arkansas approved in May 2022.
Is PayNearMe an acquirer?+
No. It is a licensed money transmitter and gateway that routes card volume through multiple third-party merchant processors, including a PayPal full-stack leg added in October 2024. Smart Switch (March 2024) turns that layered model into a resilience feature by reflowing volume between processors in seconds during outages, with ACH redundancy following in 2025. The flip side is that card pricing and approval control sit one layer away, a real difference from a PSP that owns its acquiring.
What does PayNearMe cost an operator?+
Nothing is published: no rates, setup fees, monthlies, minimums, or reserve terms anywhere public. The only pricing-adjacent statement anywhere is the emerging-operators pitch that MoneyLine passes preferred pricing through from its partner payment vendors, with no numbers attached. Players pay convenience fees on the consumer bill-pay side, but gaming operators typically absorb deposit costs, so budget for a fully negotiated deal.
Can players really pay cash at 62,000 stores?+
The count is real as a network figure (Jul 2026): 7-Eleven, CVS, Walgreens, Walmart, Kroger, Dollar General, Family Dollar, Casey's, and more, aggregated over Green Dot and InComm rails. The footnote is the catch: not all locations accept iGaming transactions, so the gaming-eligible subset is smaller. Once a register scans the barcode, funds are guaranteed and chargeback-free, the operator hears within minutes, and cutoffs run 11:59 PM PST at most chains (9:00 PM at Dollar General and Family Dollar).
How fast are payouts, and what is still missing?+
Push to Debit lands in as little as a few minutes (Jul 2026), Cardless Cash at ATM is described as nearly instant and needs only a smartphone with an SMS code, and ACH runs five cycles a day with Same-Day ACH at a 10:00 AM PST cutoff. There is no RTP or FedNow rail for gaming payouts. Venmo payouts and Cash at Cage both carried coming-soon labels on the payouts page in July 2026, so confirm timing in the sales process if either matters to your cage flow.
Which operators actually use PayNearMe?+
The dated trail: PlayLive! at the October 2021 MoneyLine launch, BetSaracen in May 2022, Tipico US consolidating onto the platform in October 2023, and Mohegan Digital as exclusive Pennsylvania payments client since April 2024. BetMGM, FanDuel, TVG, PointsBet, and Caesars Sportsbook appear in the cash-deposit roster, which also counts 9 of the 10 largest US operators and 16 of the 17 largest online casinos, with the aggregate still dated 2023.