Note
Ethereum casino payment not arriving: when the gas fee is the reason
One cause of a deposit that does not arrive is entirely on the network side and is fixable: the fee was set below what the network was charging, and the transfer is waiting for the price to come back down.
How do I tell that the fee is the problem?
Open the transfer in the wallet, or paste its identifier into a block explorer. A transfer that is waiting shows as pending, with no block yet. Compare its fee to the going gas price shown on the explorer's gas tracker. If its price per unit is below the current base fee, the fee is the reason.
If the explorer shows the transfer as included and the account is still not credited, it is a different problem, and it belongs with the operator's support.
What does a pending transfer hold up?
Every transfer from a wallet carries a counter, and they must be included in order. One waiting transfer holds up every later one from the same wallet, including ones sent to a different place. That is why a second send does not help and sometimes makes the picture worse.
How is a waiting transfer replaced?
Most wallets offer a speed-up option, which sends the same transfer again, with the same counter, at a higher fee. Whichever of the two is included first stands, and the other drops. The wallet may require a meaningfully higher fee than the original. The cancel option works the same way, replacing the transfer with an empty one to yourself.
What not to do
Do not send the amount again from another wallet. If the first transfer is still waiting, both may eventually be included, and the casino has no way to hand one back. Do not pay a stranger who offers to speed it up. And do not assume a wait means failure: a waiting transfer has not failed, it is simply cheaper than the going price.
How to read the gas tracker for a waiting transfer
A tracker shows a few numbers, usually labelled low, average and high, in gwei, with the current base fee beside them. For a waiting transfer, the comparison to make is the base fee against the maximum fee in the transfer's own details. If the maximum is below the base fee, the transfer cannot be included until the base fee falls beneath it.
If the maximum is above the base fee and the transfer still waits, the cause is elsewhere: usually an earlier transfer from the same wallet that carries a lower fee and is holding the queue.
Quick answers
| How long can an ETH transfer stay pending? | As long as its fee stays below the going base fee. Prices often fall back within minutes, and a speed-up is the other way out. |
|---|---|
| Does a failed ETH transfer still cost gas? | Yes, a transfer that fails during execution still pays for the gas it used. A transfer that is only waiting has not been charged yet. |
Carry on with
Gas and fees the full mechanism behind the numbers in this note
withdrawal records: reading the fee line on an explorer the next note in the set
Cloudbet the operator that prints a fee for each of four routes