Credit Card Gist

MasterCard has cracked down on online credit card deposits into gambling websites, after figuring out how gambling sites were manipulating the system. According to various sources the action taken by MasterCard coincides with a Federal appeals court ruling recently upholding a contempt order for refusing to comply with a grand-jury subpoena leveled against two former online gambling payment processing companies. The blocking of all deposits made by US citizens linked to poker sites and online casinos will be imposed, immediately as MasterCard starts to comply with the eventual Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act enforcement.

In what seems like a never ending problem for the financial institutions, MasterCard has attempted before to block online transactions but were thwarted by gaming sites who were able to remove the code identifying the transaction from their sites. MasterCard’s last attempt to block gambling transactions lasted about 2 months before gaming sites were able remove the code making them invisible again. Doylesroom, Bodog, Absolute Poker, UltimateBet, Cake Poker Network and Sportsbooks will be affected by this action by the credit card giant.

Visa continues to be widely used in the US at online poker and casino sites but it has been suggested they are working on similar plan to refuse transactions from online gambling sites or players.

(Via EGRmagazine.com)