Do I need to pay a deposit for a tourist visa to the United States?

There should be no deposit for a tourist visa to the United States.

All the requirements for deposit are the rules of the travel company itself, which may become the norm in some provinces and cities.

Some of them have some bad guys to build a game. For example, it is said that people pay the deposit to prevent team members from leaving privately during the tour. In fact, this situation is almost impossible to happen. Once the tour is over, the money can't come back for months or even a year, so that the company has a lot of money, and even suddenly disappears and runs away. So be careful when paying the deposit.

Anyway, you don't need a deposit to apply for a visa yourself.