Rumours fly with regard to MasterCard ban on US casino players

As though the ongoing crackdown by credit card processing firms MasterCard and Visa against online casino transactions weren’t enough, another wrinkle has been added to this action with a supposed battle against duplicitous internet casinos rapidly becoming a war against U.S. consumers.

Rumor has it that, though the credit card transactions may be prevented from completion and the monies taken from player accounts, the individual players are left to “unfreeze” their accounts with the credit card companies themselves; meanwhile, online casinos will not see the deposit money and players are not being informed that their would-be playing money has not actually disappeared from their personal accounts.

According to Poker News Daily’s recent interview with a payment-processing expert, MasterCard’s maneuver is ethically shaky at best. When asked if players realize that funds aren’t being deposited using credit cards, the unnamed interview subject stated that:

The players are not notified. The deposits go through and they will still be billed for the transaction. The issue is that the gaming company never receives the funds, as they are "intercepted." The processor the gaming company used then has their account with MasterCard closed and they are fined; this is usually passed on to the gaming company directly.

To the question “Does a player lose the intercepted funds?” came the answer:

If MasterCard closes the middleman down, they keep all funds frozen until they ascertain what happened. The player gets billed and knows nothing. The player gets his money in his gaming account and has his credit card billed. We basically just gave him free money. These companies do not settle instantly with the poker rooms and that is where the big risk comes. Master Card doesn’t settle with the processor instantly either.

In response to MasterCard’s action, U.K.-based UC Group Ltd. has taken matters somewhat into its own hands in announcing the launch of SecureTrading Inc., a “new subsidiary to be based in the New York area and set up to service the online casinos and Internet poker industry.” Secure Trading co-director Ted Friedman promises that his company is “not a gambling operator. We provide the behind-the-scenes systems to the gambling operator.”

One can’t help but wonder, however, just how long it might take Secure Trading to get rolling and truly fill the huge gap left in the departure of a 45-year-old, $5 billion financial giant from the industry. In the meantime, the only winners in this story would appear to be Neteller and other such alternative payment method providers.