UK Restricts Credit Card Use for Online Gambling

UK Restricts Credit Card Use for Online Gambling

The Online gambling industry is one the most profitable businesses out there;  it  thrives on revenue generated by advertising and on money deposited by gamblers. As gambling involves putting a lot of money at stake, there are regulations in place to protect players.

The UK has introduced new rules and regulations to safeguard gamblers from losing all their money, while allowing the industry to make profits at the same time.

There are many ways a player deposits their money at online gambling platforms, they can use credit cards, debit cards, e-wallets, and more. But sometimes players end up accumulating credit card debt in hopes of winning reward or recovering money that was lost; it usually backfires.

Considering the seriousness of the situation, the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) has proposed to ban the use of credit cards for making payments at online gambling platforms. This proposal became a reality in April 2020 by restricting credit card transactions for gambling purposes.

Credit cards are quite misused in online gambling; a player keeps on placing bets with money they don’t have and end up with huge debt and penalties for not paying their bills in time. So in June 2020 the UKGC has further banned e-wallets along with several electronic funds transfer companies that permit use of credit cards for gambling.

With the new credit card payment restriction rule in place, money service businesses such as PayPal need to devise a method that prevents the use of credit cards for making payments to gambling merchants. One way is to make sure if the player would be using their money for gambling or not and restricting the use of credit card deposits accordingly.

According to UKGC chief executive Neil McArthur, the ban intends to keep gamblers away from credit card debt. However, it would be interesting to see how online gamblers and gambling platforms adapt to it.

William McVey

William McVey just joined 99igaming.com with an intension to write the latest articles on the betting, and poker world. He has good communication skills and also loves playing online casino games.

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