Online Casino Credit Card Deposits To Be Banned in the UK

Posted at: 14 January 2020

A ban on credit card deposits is coming to the UK. This is what the UKGC announced on January 9, 2020. The ban will come into force on April 14, so UK licensed casino operators have 3 months to amend their list of supported payment methods.

The ban is one of the measures the UK authorities take in an attempt to curb excessive gambling – a problem that is becoming more and more serious across the country. Various statistics show that more than 10 million people play online casino games and 800,000 of them deposit via credit cards. Consequently, people affected by compulsive gambling disorder often fall into huge debts because they deposit funds they do not actually have. If they lose their bet, they have to repay their credit card debt and some of them even ask for a payday loan, which only makes matters worse.

In addition, credit card deposits and withdrawals often come with processing fees. Last, but not least, players who make online casino deposits and do not repay their debts are less likely to be given a mortgage as they would have a bad credit history.

The credit card ban will apply not only for online casinos, but also for any kind of offline gambling. For now, scratchcards have a low problem gambling rate, so it would be possible to purchase a lottery ticket at the supermarket and pay with a credit card as long as there are other non-gambling products in the same purchase.

As CorrectCasinos reported, the credit card ban comes to the UK after a year of consultations and discussions. Back in 2019, the UKGC imposed age and advertisement restrictions and decided to make the credit card ban the first law amendment for 2020.