PayNearMe Review
7.6/10US-only money transmitter behind MoneyLine, running cash deposits at 62,000+ retail stores plus cards, ACH, PayPal, and Venmo for state-licensed operators, with 46 money-transmitter licenses across two NMLS entities and cash deposits running for 9 of the 10 largest US operators (2023).
Our read
- Cash at 62,000+ stores (7-Eleven, CVS, Walgreens, Walmart, Kroger, Dollar General and more) with zero chargebacks once the register scans it.
- Redundancy shipped as product: Smart Switch reroutes card volume across multiple partner processors in seconds, 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.
- Versioned developer docs with 35+ endpoints and an iGaming v3.0 section, plus Trustly-underwritten Guaranteed ACH that takes NSF risk off bank deposits.
- No pricing, no rate ranges, no reserve terms, and no published SLA or uptime number.
- 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.
- Payout gaps: Venmo payouts and Cash at Cage are both still coming soon, and Cash App Pay runs on the platform but is not offered for iGaming.
- 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 (Sightline's lane), and buyers who need direct acquiring economics or published pricing before the first call.
Markets & licensing
The money-transmitter stack runs to 46 licenses across 42 states plus DC, split between two entities. PayNearMe MT, Inc. (NMLS 957940) holds six, including New York, New Jersey, and Florida. PayNearMe Financial, Inc. (NMLS 2642362) holds the other forty, the newer build, with 2025 issue dates in Iowa and Rhode Island. Gaming-side registrations add New Jersey (Mar 2020), Arkansas (May 2022), and Pennsylvania, with Michigan, Arizona, Mississippi, and Wyoming approved at the October 2021 MoneyLine launch.
Eight states fall outside the licensed set, including Montana, which has no money-transmitter statute at all.
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.
- PayNearMe MT, Inc. (NMLS 957940)United States (6 states)
- The older of the two transmitter entities · 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 in Iowa (2025-0095) and Rhode Island (20254935CT) · 40 licenses · 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)
- 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
- 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.
The cash product runs in every legal US state where PayNearMe is licensed or authorized.
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. 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.
Products & tools
One contract spans the rails, all through the MoneyLine platform.
MoneyLine
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, including Cash at Retail by barcode and Cash at Cage
- PayPal and Venmo deposits live since 2022
- 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 Retail
Barcode cash deposits at 7-Eleven, CVS, Walgreens, Walmart, Kroger, Dollar General, Family Dollar, and Casey's General Store.
- 62,000+ US locations, up from 60,000+ in 2023
- Operator notified 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)
Smart Switch
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
- 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
Developer Platform
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.
- 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: SFTP and AWS Transfer exchange, Okta and Azure SSO configs, Business Rules engine, Insights dashboards
- An llms.txt index added by 2026
The history
Longevity in this industry usually comes with a change of owner somewhere in it.
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 in 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 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
- 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
Most buyers in this market shortlist three or four vendors long before they take a single sales call.
| Attribute | PayNearMe | Sightline Payments | Aeropay |
|---|---|---|---|
| Founded | 2009 | 2010 | 2017 |
| Team | 230+ | 81+ | 60+ |
| US market | Available | Available | Available |
| Pricing | — | On request | On request |
| Methods | 9+ | — | 1+ |
| Currencies | 1+ | 1+ | 1+ |
| Settlement | — | — | Same-day ACH batches to the merchant by default |
| Instant payouts | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Settlement & commercials
PayNearMe prices per deal, so exact figures land in the contract rather than on a public rate card.
Card rates are passed through from the partner processors
Consumer convenience fees exist on the bill-pay side and vary by biller, while gaming operators typically absorb deposit costs.
The deal
Money movement
Onboarding path
- 1Contact iGaming sales (sales@paynearme.com)
- 2Map your states against the two-entity license coverage and the gaming-vendor registrations, and clear KYB with the money-transmitter compliance stack
- 3Get sandbox credentials through account setup: the 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
- 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.