Credit Card trouble for UK Egaming users
21st November, 2008
Global banking giant Citigroup puts ban on UK Egaming
A spokesman for Citigroup said, “As soon as we got the right systems in Place we sent out statements to customers letting them know they would no longer be able to use their cards to gamble.”
The US-owned bank claimed the extension of the infamous 7995 coding block to the UK was intended to protect consumers and reduce fraud, but has in adversely banned its UK customers from using their credit cards to fund egaming accounts.
Citigroup offers a range of Visa Cards in the UK under its Citibank subsidiary, although their decision to pull out of the egaming sector is expected to have little or no consequence
The 7995 coding system allows credit card firms to identify online gambling transactions, with operators that fail to code the transaction correctly facing harsh fines.
Although similar bans have been in place in the US for nearly two years, firms have found ways around them, and with the UK’s widespread debit card system where approximately 60% of card transactions are now through debit cards. It should be a reasonably easy process for customers to change creditcard accounts to debit card accounts. However operators have not taken kindly to the change and voiced their anger to the ban.
Unfortunately to add to UK online gamers problems there has also been talk that the UK’s conservative party is considering adopting a policy that would see it ban the use of credit cards for online gambling, if it were to win the next general election.
By Rommon
