The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) recently asked its online gambling operators to stop supporting credit card play via e-wallets.

Strict measures from the regulator

The commission has recently taken up many strict measures to stop gambling via credit cards and to protect the consumers from harm. On Wednesday, it issued a new “guidance on credit card payments made through Money Service Businesses (MSBs).” According to the regulator, there is a need to clarify that it doesn’t intend to allow gamblers to play with money that they don’t own. It wants to impose the credit card ban to help in maximizing the frictions in accessing borrowed funds. This would help consumers in avoiding mounting debt.

The UKGC launched a credit card gambling consultation in July last year. It noted at the time that e-wallets could be used to circumvent the credit card ban. Gamblers could simply fund their accounts using credit cards via e-wallets. Therefore, it was necessary to bring more cooperation in the different segments of online payments.

What else did the UKGC say?

The UKGC said that Revoluta and other electronic money institutions allow users to load funds using credit cards. Therefore, UK-licensed gambling sites should create systems that could prevent gambling via these products. Note that Revolut banned all similar options for its UK customers in April after the regulator announced a credit card ban.

The UKGC warned all licensees that they will have to reject all payments made via these businesses until they have developed a block to prevent the use of credit card deposits used for gambling. The UK media called out services like Payforit and Boku which use a ‘pay-by-phone’ service model to allow gamblers to fund their accounts. Some of these gambling sites also allow customers to select this funding option. The funding limit is usually £240 per month which are then added to the mobile phone bill of the customers. This allows customers to gamble using their credit cards.