The United Kingdom no longer allows credit cards to be used for gambling, they are now banned from online casinos.
The United Kingdom no longer allows credit cards to be used for gambling, they are now banned from online casinos. This action is put forward because gambling has seen a dramatic spike during the COVID-19 lockdown. People who are forced to quarantine and leave their jobs temporarily have been playing cash games online.
Announced in January, the UK Gambling Commission, along with the Department of Culture, Media, and Sports, also said that the credit cards cannot be used to fund e-wallets for casino gaming. The same applies to offline betting.
The UK Gambling Commission stated that more than 10 million people in the UK gamble online and that roughly 10% of them use credit cards. More than 175,000 people are supposedly hooked to real-money gaming, and adding insult to this injury is the last thing that should happen during this crisis.
The Chief of the UK Gambling Commission, Neil McArthur, said that people should see this as a protective measure for consumers. This ban will reduce the risk of gambling addiction while people are at home. It will also eliminate the possibility of people using money they do not own for gambling.
The ban also came at a time when the government saw an influx in the number of online casinos that opened recently. The government noticed that there was a rise in gambling activities since the UK was put on lockdown due to COVID-19.
The games like free slots with bonus rounds are not banned. Punters can still access free slots in online casinos, but they cannot deposit money with credit cards to make real money wagers.
Despite this ban, gambling is not totally shut out from credit cards. Players can still purchase lottery tickets if these lotteries are for a good cause. Also, the purchase for the lottery ticket must also come with grocery purchases or other items, not just a ticket.
Online gambling in itself is not banned in Britain. Players can still place wagers on their favorite games, albeit they need to find a different funding method. An alternative is to use e-wallets, which they can fund via sales or money sent to them by another person, for use debit cards.
The other alternative is to use cryptocurrencies. A lot of online casinos now accept Bitcoin and Ethereum, the leading crypto-currencies in the world. If this is not possible, the player can transfer money from his bank to the casino site.
What’s banned is the use of credit cards because players are using money that they do not own. What this means is that you cannot transfer funds from a credit card to an e-wallet for gambling purposes.
At best, players are encouraged to choose free slot machine games without downloading or registration. These slots are the very same slots that are available in casinos, albeit there is no real money involved. Most of them are demo versions that have the same game mechanics but without the thrill of actually winning real cash.
