Some of the USA Banks are Blocking regulated Online Gambling Payments

Despite the fact that Several States in the USA have legalized online gambling, a number of banks are still blocking transactions for Internet Gambling. During 2006 The UIGEA, (the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement) was passed which made it illegal for credit card issuers and banks to process payments for online gambling, and most banks complied due to strict threats of fines and penalties coming from the Department of Justice. Despite this law, some banks did process payments for USA players. Today it is now legal in some states for online gambling to be regulated and operational, however, its not too surprising that some banks refuse to process payments on these regulated sites.

Denial by Banks and Payment Processors

Reports have stated that Wells Fargo, Bank of America and PayPal are among the Credit Card users and payment processors that deny online gambling transactions in Delaware and Nevada, and its expected that they will not do so in New Jersey. It would appear that these institutions are ‘gun shy’ after many prior changes in the Federal edicts with regards to online gambling. This has created a major issue for these states, because if major Credit Card issuers and payment processors reject transactions, then the Casinos will lose a lot of business. The issues that these institutions state are concerns over potential violations liability of UIGEA regulations, and also underage gambling. They feel that its better to step aside then take risks over this issue. The Vice President for the regulatory compliance for the American Bankers Association, Steve Kenneally stated that things could still go wrong, and asks the question “does the revenue he gets offset the potential downside?”

Legalities

Some organisations are not interested as to whether online gaming is legal or not, PayPal rarely allows their services to be used as a means to pay for online gambling, the will only enter into agreement with specific companies in the fully regulated jurisdictions. American Express will not allow any of their cards to be used in any gambling transactions, under no circumstances whatsoever. To of the major Credit Card companies Visa and MasterCard accepts gambling transactions, including online gambling in jurisdictions where gambling is regulated and legal as a matter of policy. Although acceptable, both leave the final decision to the banking institution of the users, whereby they can choose to decline if they are not comfortable with the transactions. Spokesperson, Seth Palansky, for Caesars Entertainment said that many of the transactions are all bank-dependent, he continued that Caesars has had to deal with the issue in Nevada, he also said that due to the new laws, there is ongoing education with regards to gaming transactions. Caesars runs the well known Word Series of Poker Brand. One of the issues that rejects the gaming transactions is simply a default situation in the USA. Most banks have their internal systems set to block gambling transaction after UIGEA was passed in 2006. If any bank wants to accept gambling transaction they need to update their databases, policies and systems. Spokesperson at the Bank of America, the second largest in the USA, said that the bank was ‘revisiting the policy’. Delaware officials say that visa affiliated bank were still rejecting transactions in the State, and MasterCard transactions were going through at a much faster pace and that the debit cards were very rarely declined. Over all of this players are left to figure out how to get deposits and withdrawals on newly regulated legal gambling sites.