Credit Cards

What a Credit Card Deposit Is

A credit card deposit draws on a line of credit extended by the card issuer rather than on a balance the player already holds. That is the distinction that matters to regulators, and it is the reason credit cards are treated differently from debit cards in gambling rules.

The Great Britain Ban Covers All Gambling, Not Just Betting

Credit cards cannot be used to gamble in Great Britain. The Gambling Commission, which states that it licenses and regulates the individuals and businesses that provide gambling in Great Britain, introduced the ban on 14 April 2020, and its own guidance states plainly that gambling businesses must not accept credit card payments for gambling. The scope is the whole activity rather than one product: the Commission lists online betting, online casino and bingo, lotteries accepting online or telephone payments, high street bookmakers and track bookmakers, and high street casinos, bingo halls and arcades. The ban added licence condition 6.1.2 to the Commission's licence conditions and codes of practice. It is not limited to a card presented directly: the Commission states that the ban extends to payments for gambling made by credit card through any money service business, such as an e-wallet or other electronic money institution, and tells gambling businesses accepting payment from an e-wallet such as PayPal or Skrill to make sure the money was not loaded from a credit card. One carve-out exists — the ban does not extend to non-remote lottery licences, so lottery tickets and scratchcards bought in a shop alongside non-gambling products are outside it, as are tickets paid for by post.

The Networks Behind the Rail

Visa states that it facilitates digital payments across more than 200 countries and territories, and dates its own origin to 1958, when Bank of America launched the first consumer credit card programme in the United States. American Express states that it was founded in 1850, that it introduced a charge card in the 1950s, and that it is accepted at 99 per cent of places in the United States that accept credit cards, a figure its own page attributes to a February 2022 Nilson Report.

Fees and Timings

No figure is given here. None of the card networks publishes a gambling deposit fee or a funding time on its own site, and a card-issuer cash-advance charge is set by the issuer rather than by the network. A player should read their own issuer's terms, because some issuers treat a gambling transaction as a cash advance.

Can a Withdrawal Go Back to a Credit Card?

In most cases, no. Credit cards are primarily used as funding methods only. When you go to withdraw, you will usually be asked to choose a different withdrawal method.