VISA moves to
block online casinos transactions
Depositing
at the online casinos using a VISA trademarked credit card (and
debit cards) just became a tad bit harder. According to the
latest reports, VISA is following suit with MasterCard in
attempt to block all transactions to online casinos, whether
coded as "online gambling" or using routing payment merchants.
At this point the implementation does not seem to have the
wide-spread effect the MasterCard ban had, but many online
casino operators remain worried about the future. Currently
MasterCard and VISA are only blocking online casino transactions
in the United States and there is no word if world-wide ban is
in the works.
Many in the online gambling industry
speculate that the move behind the two major credit card issuers
comes in the wake of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement
Act (UIGEA), which forbids banks and other financial
institutions to transfer money to and from online gambling
websites. The regulations are set to come into effect on June
1st, but the hasty move by VISA and MasterCard in the past weeks
could only be attributed to preparedness for future compliance
with the anti online gambling act.
Some online casinos at this time
continue to advertise the VISA credit card transactions as
possible and claim that at this time there is no problem with
it. Others, however, have reported long holds placed on deposits
to online casinos with VISA cards by the issuing bank, a pattern
similar to the one we observed before MasterCard began fully
blocking all online casino and gambling transactions. Of course,
players do have many other options when it comes to online
gambling, although the block imposed by the two biggest credit
card licensers in the world is sure to make things harder for
the online gambling industry. Currently the third party bank
deposit processors, such as eWalletXpress, remain the easiest
and most popular method for depositing money at the online
casinos.
Published
on 02/22/2010
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