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Online Poker and Credit Cards

March 18th, 2010

The rumors fly as speculation of Visa and Mastercard will stop depositing funds to online poker sites in the US. Under the purview of the UIGEA, which comes into full effect in June of 2010, it will be unlawful for banks to facilitate the transfer of monies to a poker online site. Most of the major banks have already set procedures in place that block online transactions, and even some of the smaller banks and credit unions have followed suit. So where does that leave the US playing economy?

Well this could work in a few different ways.

First, there are banks out there that are not considered true banks, such as Metabank, which issues NetSpend cards. These cards have either a Visa or Mastercard logo on them. If Visa steps in and blocks the transactions, these cards will be useless, same if Mastercard or AmEx does the same thing. If this happens and Metabank can’t process transactions, people will have to find other ways to make the deposits.

One possibility is to make an eCheck, a check that is debited from your bank account, and then sent through eCheck’s system to your account. Therefore your bank is not directly responsible for facilitating the transfer.

Another option is to use a wire transfer such as Western Union to wire the funds, though Western Union charges a fee for this. Other solutions have popped up such as NetWallet, which essentially works the same as Western Union.

The worrisome thought about the situation however, is what happens if Visa shuts down all transactions to online poker sites? Would this affect the European market, or those in other parts of the world? Since those lands are sovereign, the UIGEA couldn’t be applicable. I would expect to see a case and hearing in the Hauge, the International Court of Justice if it came down to that.

One final option for Americans is to get a prepaid, secured, or unsecured credit card from a company based in another country where the UIGEA wouldn’t apply. Then he could go about his merry way depositing and cashing out as he pleases.

Currently I use a Prepaid Visa to load money onto my online account, so I’ll keep everyone up to date on this rumor to let you know if it’s fact or fiction.

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