What is Payfast, exactly?
Payfast is a South African-based online payment gateway that's been processing local transactions for well over a decade, long before instant EFT brands like Ozow became the default at SA casino cashiers. It was built specifically to let South African businesses accept online payments from South African customers using methods locals already trust — credit and debit cards, instant EFT, and a handful of other regional rails — all routed through infrastructure that understands the local banking system, the local currency, and the local compliance environment. Where a generic international payment gateway might treat South Africa as an afterthought bolted onto a US or European-first product, Payfast was designed around SA banking rails from day one.
For an online casino like Hollywoodbets, integrating Payfast means offering players a payment gateway that can accept a card payment, redirect into an instant EFT flow, or process a handful of other supported methods, all under one unified checkout experience at the cashier. From a player's perspective, selecting Payfast at the Hollywoodbets cashier typically means you're taken to a secure Payfast-hosted payment page where you choose exactly how you want to pay — card or instant EFT — rather than Payfast being a single, narrow payment type in its own right. That flexibility is part of why local businesses, casinos included, have kept using Payfast as a core part of their payment stack even as newer instant EFT specialists have entered the market.
Payfast operates under South African financial services oversight and has built a reputation over many years as one of the more established local payment processors, servicing everything from small e-commerce stores to larger platforms like Hollywoodbets that need to move meaningful transaction volume reliably. Because it's been part of the SA online payments landscape for so long, most local banks recognise and trust Payfast-routed transactions, which helps reduce the kind of gambling-merchant-code friction that sometimes trips up direct card payments entered straight into a casino's own checkout form.
It's worth being clear about scope here: Payfast is currently a verified, listed payment method at Hollywoodbets specifically, appearing in its cashier alongside Ozow, Instant EFT and vouchers. Neither Pantherbet nor 10bet currently list Payfast in their published payment menus — Pantherbet's eleven methods centre on Ozow, EFTsecure, cards and a wide voucher selection, while 10bet leans on Ozow EFT, OTT Voucher, crypto and ATM Cash Deposit. If Payfast is specifically the gateway you want to use, Hollywoodbets is, at the time of writing, your practical option among the three operators this site tracks.
Payfast's checkout experience is built to work cleanly on both desktop and mobile browsers, which matters given how much South African online casino traffic happens on a phone. The hosted payment page is lightweight and doesn't require installing a separate app — you're simply redirected to Payfast's secure page from within the Hollywoodbets cashier, complete your chosen payment method there, and are redirected back once the transaction clears.