Businesses operating in high-risk industries face special requirements for the security and reliability of payment solutions. In such industries, it’s crucial for banks and payment systems to minimize fraud risks and ensure full regulatory compliance. This is especially true for gambling operators, where financial flows are high, and user trust directly impacts success. Therefore, a high-quality payment gateway for online gambling plays a key role: it guarantees stable operation, fast transaction processing, and the protection of player data at every stage of the payment process.
Building Your Own Payment Gateway — Is It Worth It?
If you’ve recently started considering adding a payment gateway to your app and have begun exploring options, you’ve probably noticed that there are two main ways to do so. You can either use one of the many third-party payment gateways or build your own payment solution. Which is better? Let’s be honest — in most cases, building a custom payment gateway has far more disadvantages than advantages. Building a new gateway just to accept payments in your app is too expensive and complex.
A payment gateway development project involves partnering with a payment company, developing technical specifications from scratch, and ensuring compliance with all necessary security standards, including PCI DSS, EMV, EMV 3D, and P2PE. To ensure the payment gateway supports multiple payment methods, including international payments, it is necessary to sign agreements with various acquirers (banking and financial institutions). The project does not end there. Development and management of the payment gateway requires regular audits, particularly regarding the storage and processing of user data, as well as transparency regarding the tools used to protect data and payments processed through the gateway.
The process is large-scale and quite complex. Therefore, unless you have specific plans and a strategy for launching, maintaining, and securing a new payment gateway, the project is unlikely to be worth starting from scratch. You’ll need to hire a specialist familiar with payment regulations and fintech to develop the app and ensure compliance with payment processor regulations, and the development process itself will be extremely time-consuming and expensive.
If you simply want to offer in-app payments, using one of the available third-party payment gateway solutions is a much better option, as it’s much faster and less expensive.
White Label Online Payment Systems
Creating your own gateway isn’t the best option, as integrating a ready-made gateway is much less expensive and time-consuming. If you still dream of adapting a ready-made solution to your needs and brand, then you should consider white-label payment gateways, such as those offered by Tranzzo.
White label gateways operate just like any other gateway — they have the same features, security levels, and certification. However, since they aren’t branded by the provider, companies can customize the checkout process on the website by using their own names, logos, brand elements, or adding new features they require.
So why should you consider white label gateways? First of all, they save you a ton of time. Creating your own gateway requires time spent developing technical specifications, creating a token system, obtaining certification, and negotiating agreements with payment providers. Meanwhile, third-party gateways already meet all these technical requirements — you can simply take a ready-made solution, customize it to suit your brand, and that’s it.
You can leave all matters related to purchasing, maintenance, security certification, and auditing to the provider. If you were to build the gateway yourself, all these issues would be handled by you.
White-label gateway providers regularly add new features, technologies, payment methods, and security measures to their platforms. And as their partner, you can take advantage of these capabilities immediately after implementation, at no additional cost.
Gateway providers already have several fraud protection mechanisms and strategies in place, so you can be confident in the complete security of the gateway and all data passing through it. When using your own payment gateway, you’ll have to develop your own security measures. Furthermore, most white-label gateways easily integrate with third-party security systems, fraud protection systems, and KYC solutions if you require an additional layer of protection. White-label payment gateways can be easily integrated with your core system, back office, and any applications you may need via APIs. Additionally, many of these platforms offer features to help you file reports for tax and compliance purposes.
When considering white-label gateways, it’s wise to weigh the potential downsides. There’s no point in hiding the fact that they require a usage fee. However, if you calculate the costs of developing and maintaining a gateway from scratch, the fees can be overlooked.
By creating your own gateway, you also have complete control over its design, navigation, features, and integrations — meaning you can create a customized gateway that’s tailored to your business. White-label applications, on the other hand, tend to be quite limited in their customization options.
However, creating such a gateway will require significant time. First and foremost, it’s essential to assemble a project team of financial application developers with sufficient experience to ensure smooth operation and monitor for any unforeseen issues during development. Successful completion of such a project can take months, even years, while implementing a ready-made gateway takes much less time.
For online gambling, a white label payment gateway solution is preferable because it allows you to quickly and securely launch your own payment system under the operator’s brand without the costs of development and compliance with complex regulatory requirements.
Final Thoughts
For companies in high-risk industries, including online gambling, developing their own gateway is an expensive and complex process that rarely pays off. It’s far more efficient to use a ready-made white-label solution, which provides the same level of reliability and flexibility without the extra cost. Tranzzo provides modern payment technologies that allow brands to accept online payments under their own name. Their white-label payment gateway is ideal for iGaming businesses, helping operators quickly launch their payment infrastructure, maintain a high level of security, and offer a convenient user experience to players.