Credit & Debit Cards

Top Casinos Accepting Credit Cards

Credit card banking is such a cornerstone of society with both credit cards and debit cards being used daily – some credit bureaus have begun to block online casinos particularly in the UK but that doesn’t mean they aren’t available as some of the best casinos still accept credit cards.

Shazam Casino

Shazam offers a wide range of different banking options for players to choose from with credit and debit cards being offered as both a deposit and a withdrawal option – deposits are limited to a minimum of $25 and a maximum of $1,000 with withdrawals limited to $100 minimum and a $2000 maximum, but a number of different cards are accepted for players to choose from.

Wild Casino

A longer established name in the casino world and serving players from all over the world with a wide range of different software providers and a wide range of different games too – Wild offers mastercard deposits with a minimum of $25 and a maximum of $2,500 but withdrawal options are much more restrictive and players won’t be able to use their credit or debit cards for this purpose.

Lucky Tiger Casino

Another newcomer to the scene that has grown quickly in a short period of time largely in part to its unique look and very aesthetically pleasing appearance, but another great Realtime Gaming based site that offers both deposits and withdrawals through credit and debit card – deposits are limited to $25 minimum and $1,000 maximum with credit card and withdrawals are limited to $100 minimum and $2,000 per week by credit card.

HISTORY

In the early days of the internet, paying using your debit or credit card was the only option available. It did not take long for the problems with this situation to became known, however. Card details were frequently stolen from poorly secured servers, and then used to make fraudulent purchases or transactions without the cardholder’s knowledge. A better solution was required if trade on the web was to be truly successful – today there are many more purchase protections on credit and debit cards, although cookies collection information and can store card details, there are now great protections against unauthorized purchases on both debit card purchases and credit card purchases.

There are issues with this change, however, as history has shown – cookies collect information and in some instances can make it easier for attempts made to take card details and there have been issues in the past with some taking small monthly payments to avoid detection, or even phishing attempts pretending to be the financial institution in question that would lead to money being siphoned away.

Early attempts at creating purely digital cash were hampered by the inability of software developers to produce an effective fix for what later became known as the double spending problem. Satoshi Nakamoto eventually solved this problem in 2009 when he created the Bitcoin cryptocurrency, which used an innovative technology that he called the “blockchain”. This prevented savvy individuals who understood the underlying technology from duplicating their digital “cash” and spending it repeatedly.

Before Bitcoin, web-based money was achieved by companies such as DigiCash and PayPal, who used the existing financial networks to facilitate the transactions, but ultimately, banks accounts and cards were still required in order to get money in and out of the system.

In his White Paper, Satoshi referenced Hashcash, B-Money and Bit Gold as early inspirations for the technology he created. Whilst cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin have a great deal of potential, they have a long way to go before they can rival the simplicity of making card transactions for most ordinary people.

Credit Cards are popular when making large purchases, because of the additional security that is provided by the issuers of these cards. If you suffer fraud whilst using a credit card on the internet, you can be quite sure that you will get your money back – although you may well be seriously inconvenienced in the process. Credit cards go further than this, however – they protect you from inadequate service, failure to receive the goods you pay for, and receiving an item that is not of the quality of workmanship that you have the right to expect, as credit building became almost mandatory, using a credit card as a checking account through these online services became normal but recommended against particularly with monthly maintenance fees and other issues.

Debit Cards too offer protection against fraud, and most card issuers will refund any monies spent on your debit card without your permission. The burden of proof is on you, however, to show that it was not you who spent the money in the first place. This is easy to achieve if somebody has ordered physical goods to an address in another country – a little harder to prove if the contents of your bank account have been deposited at an online casino, then gambled away.

If you do make a habit of using your debit and credit cards to make online purchases, we recommend looking into Virtual Credit Cards as a way of preventing fraud on your primary card. Privacy.com is one of the biggest providers of this kind of service in the USA, and revolut.com offer something similar in the United Kingdom. These services allow you to create individual cards with specific limits for certain retailers – they can also allow you to manage your spending, too.

ONLINE CASINOS: MAKING A DEPOSIT

Gamblers based in Europe have It easy: most European countries have already legalized and regulated online gambling. Even in countries which do not have their own regulator, the licenses provided by both the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) and Malta Gaming Authority (MGA) require that all players be treated the same, even if they do not live in Malta or the UK.

Players based in these countries are free to use any type of debit card they wish to deposit at an online casino, although every responsible licensing authority prohibits casinos from accepting deposits made with credit cards. The reasoning behind this should be obvious, but nevertheless we do go into a little more detail about it in the FAQ section at the end of this article. With casinos being unable to check a credit report or personal finance either, it would be irresponsible for players to choose to do this.

CREDIT & DEBIT CARDS IN NORTH AMERICA

On the other side of the Atlantic, things are currently hugely different. States such as Las Vegas and New Jersey have already legalized online gambling, but the Federal Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) is still in effect and supersedes any laws passed by the individual states.

When the UIGEA first came into effect, almost every major gambling company immediately pulled out of the US market. Some online casinos and poker rooms had no choice but to try and continue operating in the United States, but the card networks also took immediate action after the law was passed.

Suddenly, players were unable to deposit using their credit or debit cards. This was a total disaster for many casinos, as there were few alternatives available in 2006., Neteller was the most popular e-wallet in the United States at the time, and they too made the decision to pull out of the US market.

This left American players with no choice but to use slow and expensive payment methods such as bank wires, checks, and Western Union. Players could no longer gamble at their leisure – they had to plan the activity in advance. This resulted in many US-centric online casinos going bankrupt.

Had these companies studied the text of the UIGEA more carefully, it is possible all of this could have been avoided. The UIGEA does not criminalize online gaming as a leisure activity – Its purpose was to protect American citizens from rogue online casinos based overseas.

The text of the UIGEA specifically states that companies must not process payments to and from unlicensed gambling websites. There were some savvy payment processors who must have noticed this very soon after the law was passed, as they continued to provide debit and credit card payment services to online casinos who were willing to pay their excessive fees and charges.

THE START OF THE NEW BEGINNING

Neteller restarted US operations in 2014, but transactions were strictly limited to offshore casinos holding at least one license from a respectable regulator. Upon seeing this, other e-wallet companies and payment processors decided they too would get in on the act – after all if Neteller felt they could do this legally, why couldn’t they?

Another federal law, the Professional and Amateur Sports Protect Act (PASPA) previously gave Nevada a virtual monopoly over all kinds of sports betting, including online sportsbooks. This law was famously removed from the statute books after the Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional in 2018.

As soon as the Supreme Court handed down their decision, the landscape of the online gambling industry in the United States began to change dramatically. Suddenly, many more casinos were willing to accept debit and credit card payments from American gamblers.

The situation in the United States continues to improve every year – at least twenty states are seeking to legalize online sports betting, and around half of those also want to allow some combination of online poker rooms, casinos, and bingo halls as well.

Prior to the passing of the UIGEA, online gambling was hugely popular in North America. This begs the question: why was the UIGEA ever passed in the first place, when both Congress and the President knew it would devastate an entire industry?

One common theory is that lobbyists made huge donations to politicians, effectively bribing them to vote for this law to safeguard the land-based gambling market in America. However, if this were true, why were both Nevada and New Jersey – the locations of Las Vegas and Atlantic City respectively – the very first states to enact their own legislation to permit online gambling?

Whatever the reason, it was both pointless and unfair – thousands, perhaps millions of Americans had to wait a year or more to get their funds back from the gambling and payment processing companies who had suddenly found themselves on the wrong side of the law.

Poker players were particularly badly affected, as these types of gamblers will typically keep their entire bankroll on their favorite site. Poker Pro’s such as Phil Ivey, Phil Hellmuth, and Antonio Esfandiari all had millions of dollars which they were suddenly unable to withdraw.

And let us not forget, those who got their balances back in full were the lucky ones – some players received pennies on the dollar from websites that had been forced into administration by the UIGEA, particularly those that had used multiple cards or multiple accounts when playing.

ONLINE CASINOS: MAKING A WITHDRAWAL

Making a withdrawal back to your card used to be a real pain, especially if you were with Mastercard – for whatever reason, this network would not allow online casinos to send funds back to their cards for years. High street retailers had no problems giving refunds to customers who had paid using a Mastercard, so the network definitely had this capability.

Thankfully, there were no such problems for VISA owners although card withdrawals did take several days to process, just like bank wires and checks. The global banking system is slowly but surely being upgraded for the digital age, and instant bank transfers are now both common and affordable. Checks are still common in the United States, but are now exceedingly rare in most European countries, where instant bank wires are simply much more convenient (and cheaper to process!) for both parties.

As for the frustratingly slow processing time of card refunds, VISA have led the charge in fixing this. They began offering instant refunds to their cards sometime around 2019, although both the sending party (the casino) and the receiving party (such as a bank) had to upgrade their systems to support the new “Visa Direct” technology.

WHY WAS VISA SO KEEN TO IMPLEMENT THIS TECHNOLOGY?

Online casinos, like every other merchant, receive payments from debit and credit cards instantly. Cardholders rightly asked why they should have to wait an entire week for payments to be sent back to the same card?

A considerable number of online gamblers began choosing to make their deposits and withdrawals using e-wallets such as Skrill, Neteller and PayPal. In countries where those options were not available, alternatives such as Cryptocurrency, CashApp and Venmo quickly gained traction.

This was unacceptable to VISA and Mastercard, as the commission they previously received on these transactions was now going to other companies instead of them. When huge companies such as VISA and Mastercard begin to see a huge drop in profits, you can be sure they will find a way to rectify this quickly!

THE SITUATION TODAY

This type of payment is now called an Original Credit Transaction (OCT), and Mastercard were quick to follow VISA’s lead with their “Mastercard Moneysend” service. OCT enables a fast and convenient transfer of funds directly to a beneficiaries’ card. The technology is now available to more than a billion cardholders in more than two hundred countries.

When I make a casino withdrawal to my own bank card, a Mastercard, I usually receive the funds in the next 6-12 hours – an enormous improvement over the previous situation, where I would often wait up to five working days for my winnings to appear back on my card.

VISA are pushing to improve this still further by requiring card issuers to make funds available within 30 minutes of the transaction being approved. Better still, some Banks such as Barclays promise to push OCT payments to the account linked to the cardholder’s debit or credit card instantly. If other major banks follow suit, we could soon see card withdrawals become the fastest way of receiving your winnings from an online gambling site.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

CAN I GET A CASINO BONUS FOR DEBIT AND CREDIT CARD DEPOSITS?

Americans who deposit to a USD casino online using a credit or debit card typically qualify for a casino bonus, like a match deposit, but debit cards offer options are becoming fewer.

WHAT ARE THE MOST COMMON CREDIT CARD PROVIDERS ACCEPTED AT ONLINE CASINOS?

Although each casino is different, most online casinos accept major credit card providers: Visa, Mastercard, Discover, and American Express (AMEX) and is often one of the default settings for payment.

CAN I MAKE A USD WITHDRAWAL FROM MY ONLINE CASINO PLAYER ACCOUNT USING MY CREDIT CARD?

Some online casinos allow American players to cashout USD winnings using a Visa or Mastercard, but this is not always true. You’ll also want to determine whether the casino applies withdrawal fees using this method and how the balance transfers from a credit card.

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ONLINE GAMBLING USING A CREDIT CARD AND A DEBIT CARD?

A debit card is linked to your bank account, so deposits are debited from your bank balance. When making a credit card deposit, the money is not yours since it must be repaid to the issuer.

IS IT SAFE TO USE A CREDIT CARD OR DEBIT CARD AT AN ONLINE CASINO?

Credit card and debit card deposits are safe and secure using encryption and other security features to protect sensitive information.

CAN I MAKE A DEPOSIT USING A CREDIT CARD OR DEBIT CARD NOT IN MY NAME?

Online casinos prohibit players from using funds from accounts not in their name.