The future is not always obvious. In America, the federal government was not interested in developing telegraph technology and even its inventor Robert Morse could not envision how he had revolutionized communication. It took a plow salesman from Ithaca, New York to show them how.
In 1842 Ezra Cornell was on a sales call in his territory of Maine when he bumped into an acquaintance in the offices of The Maine Farmer. The man had been given a one-quarter share of Morse’s telegraph patent in exchange for services rendered in its development. He was puzzling over a way to bury the newfangled telegraph lines when Cornell walked in. Cornell went to work and soon cobbled together a special plow that would gouge out a 30-inch ditch, drop a pipe and telegraph wire and cover everything back up with dirt as it was pulled along.
[showSites]
Even as he was slaying this installation problem Cornell saw that the future of the telegraph was on poles. He overcame the hurdle of shorted lines with glass insulators and strung the first practical telegraph in the world between Washington, D.C. and Baltimore. The indefatigable Cornell single-handedly raised capital and began connecting cities like Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, Milwaukee and Pittsburgh with telegraph service.
In 1856 Cornell joined forces with Hiram Sibley, who had worked on that first telegraph project at the nation’s capital and subsequently organized the New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company. Their new venture was called the Western Union Telegraph Company and it soon gained a stranglehold on the telecommunications industry. In 1871 Western Union sent its first money transfer over its one million miles of telegraph lines. When the telephone came online several years later, Western Union’s main business shifted to sending money over the wire.
How Do Bank Wire Casinos Work?
It has been almost 150 years since Western Union began transferring money by wire and the same concept still applies. A player contacts a bank and requests that money be withdrawn from an account and sent to an online casino. It appears instantly in an account, available to play. It is a safe, time-honored method of transferring funds and there is not a much more convenient way to fund an online casino bankroll.
What Are the Downsides of Wire Transfers?
All that safety and convenience come at a cost. Ezra Cornell was not able to endow the Ivy League school that bears his name because he was good at digging ditches. Wire transfer fees can be substantially higher than fees associated with credit cards and they are typically assessed to both the sender and receiver. Some casinos will not accept bank wire deposits because of these fees which are unsightly to pass on to customers and too large to swallow whole.
Bank wire withdrawals are almost universally used by online casinos for payouts (apparently it is more palatable to charge players to receive their money than it is to take it from them). But more importantly casinos do not want to get into the business of sending payouts to the wrong person or to a stolen credit card or other potential scam. Trustworthy casinos with long-time reputations in the marketplace verify each and every payment to customers. By using wire transfers the transaction is confirmed at the bank end as well. This will involve a delay of several days in getting one’s money but the time inconvenience is trumped by the safety assurance. Often a casino will explain that funds will arrive in “between 8 and 10 business days;” this is a large window to provide padding against complaints and the transfer will usually be faster.
Bank wire transfers are also the way to go for most large movements of funds. To limit liability casinos often restrict the amount of cash withdrawn each week but some will waive the requirements with bank wire transfers. Fees also look better when banged against large deposits and withdrawals.