Not All Credit Card Companies On Board at US Online Casinos

While there are finally legal online casinos in America, not everyone is happy to jump on board, it seems. Despite Delaware and Nevada already operating online gambling websites, with New Jersey due to open their virtual doors on November 26th. American credit card operators are taking a long look at the online operations with concerns over transactions at the forefront.

Chief among these is a fear of being caught up in potential liabilities including underage wagering, and major companies such as Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and American Express, are yet to allow online transactions to take place at online or mobile casinos.

Luckily for Americans, these aren’t their only options, as MasterCard and Visa – the two biggest card operators – do offer transactional services to online gambling sites. Part of the reason for this is their presence around the globe: they are among the service providers at online casinos in most jurisdictions.

Since changes to American gambling laws that have allowed online gambling, there have been a number of issues that have not been a major problem in other, more liberal markets. With gambling restricted to within the state that hosts the website, companies have needed to implement geo location software to ensure any transactions do not occur outside of state lines.

Despite this, it’s expected that the card companies will soften their stance once more of the country goes online. With the online gambling market expected to make more than $8 billion a year, it’s likely that those companies will want a slice of that pie.

Meanwhile, both Visa and MasterCard made changes to ensure they abided by US laws. Visa spokeswoman Rosetta Jones commenting that the company had: “updated its procedures to code newly legalized Internet gambling transactions so that financial institutions can identify and process them in states where they are allowed.”