Mastercard Declining Online Casino Deposits

MasterCard is the first credit card company to officially restrict and limit payments made to online casinos and poker rooms.

For some time, credit card companies have been trying to figure how to limit these payments to the online casinos (since technically, UIGEA should be trying to United States player transactions) but most have not been able to work through the coding that the online casinos and poker rooms use when charging the fees.

This week, however, the news broke that MasterCard has successfully blocked transactions for online poker rooms and casinos.

In June, the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) will become effective, and many credit card companies have tried to be ahead of the curve by successfully limiting these transactions now, but without success.

Because MasterCard has successfully blocked these transactions, the MasterCard logo has already been removed from many big sites as an accepted form of payment. Other forms of payment are still being accepted from U.S. players, however.

Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) is continuing his efforts to get the UIEGA overturned. He has introduced legislation that would overturn that law, but also create other laws to legalize and regulate online gaming in the United States. He hopes to have the UIEGA overturned before it takes effect in June.