MasterCard Cracksdown On US Online Gambling Payments
5th February, 2010
An article found on eGaming Review has revealed that US facing online gaming operators have been hit by an overnight crackdown on payments made through Mastercard.
The American company has toughened their stance on the practice many companies adopt, coding egaming transactions as other forms of ecommerce allowing US customer to use their credit cards to gamble online.
It has been rumoured that MasterCard’s rival, Visa, is to take a similar measure, however these reports are as yet not confirmed.
The actions undertaken by MasterCard show that bank and payment companies are preparing for the implementation of the UIEGA banning the facilitation of online gambling by payment companies.
These developments will increase the reliance on alternative payment methods such as ewalletxpress and poker echecks which work similarly to paper cheques but is paid electronically.
The action by MasterCard coincides with a federal appeals court ruling upholding a contempt order for not complying with a grand-jury subpoena against two companies who are accused of processing more than $350m in payments for Internet gambling companies.
By Jamie
