The UK Gambling Commission has reminded operators that the ban on credit gambling applies to ewallets.
Yesterday, the UK Gambling Commission published further guidance on the credit card gambling ban and payments made through money service businesses (MSBs).
In the guidance, the UK regulator reminded operators that the ban on using credit cards to gamble extends to payments made through ewallets such as PayPal and other MSBs.
The credit card gambling ban
The ban on using credit cards to gamble was announced in January by the Gambling Commission and the UK government’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), and implemented in April.
In the lead up to the implementation of the credit card ban, the UK regulator clarified that the credit card gambling ban would apply to ewallets.
The ban on using credit cards to gamble is outlined under licence condition 6.1.2. According to this section of the licence conditions, operators cannot accept credit card payments either directly or through an MSB, such as an ewallet or other financial technology service.
The latest guidance
The UK regulator guidance serves as a reminder to operators to make sure their customers cannot circumvent the ban by using a credit card to fund an ewallet or online money transfer account and then use those funds to gamble.
The Commission highlighted the example of Revolut, a banking services provider which has blocked any online or offline gambling transactions for its credit cards.
The regulator said that as other electronic financial institutions may have not taken this step, licensees must be satisfied that there is no danger of an MSB allowing a customer to make a deposit using a credit card before offering the solution as a payment method.
The Commission said that if an operator is not satisfied that an MSB will block credit card transactions to fund gambling, the operator must block all transactions from those MSBs.
In its guidance, the Commission said: “We explained in the credit cards consultation and in our responses that this would mean that operators could not accept any payment through an MSB unless the MSB has prevented the use of credit cards for gambling through their services.
“This includes, for example, circumstances where an MSB allows its customers to transfer funds from a credit card into a wallet or account which could then be used by the customer to make gambling deposits.”
