Bad news for anyone who wants to get significant money on Bovada.
As of a few weeks ago, there are no more Western Union deposits accepted.
Western Union was good because, in most states, they allowed deposits up to $2500-$3000 AND covered your fees.
Their only other options were lousy -- credit cards at an obnoxious 4.9% fee, and Moneygram with relatively low ($800 per 7 days) limits and no fees covered.
Now you're pretty much screwed if you want to play poker at mid-high limits there, or sportsbet for anything above a few hundred.
An exact reason was not provided. I was told that "there were a lot of restrictions", presumably meaning that Western Union had gotten wise to them and prevented people from sending money to the offices in the Philippines that were receiving the money. When sending the money, you were instructed not to mention Bovada, poker, or gambling -- something Bovada/Bodog has told customers for years.
badguy23 once posted here that the names to whom you're sending the Western Union deposits are made up, and that those names were basically codes for certain corrupt Western Union offices in the Phillipines to keep a certain percentage of the money, forward the rest to Bovada, and notify them that the deposit had gone through. This makes sense, as it always made me wonder how the "runners" for Bovada in the Philippines would get to the money so quickly -- often just 15 minutes after you would send it! badguy23 also said that some of these offices were stealing from Bovada, and they just dealt with that as a cost of doing business. I'm not sure where badguy23 got this info, but I think I believe most of it. I guess it's possible that Bovada got fed up with the WU offices stealing from them, and may have ended it for that reason.
Western Union withdrawals are also gone.
Wire withdrawals still exist for players in most states, and checks (one per week up to $3000) are also still available for cashout.
Bovada says that Western Union may come back in the future, but will be gone for the time being, likely at least until sometime in 2015.