iGaming Payments: Rails, Credit Bans and Crypto Rules

iGaming payments are the deposit and withdrawal rails a gambling operator runs, from cards coded MCC 7995 to open banking, e-wallets, local instant schemes such as Brazil’s Pix, and in some markets crypto. Each rail carries its own fraud, chargeback and anti-money laundering profile, and as of October 2026 regulators in Great Britain, Australia, Sweden and Brazil ban credit cards for gambling outright.

This guide is written for operators and compliance teams. It compares the main rails, lists where credit and crypto are restricted, explains payment blocking, high-risk acquiring and chargebacks, and sets out how MiCA, the travel rule and the regulators’ crypto positions fit together. Payments are one part of the wider iGaming supplier chain.

Which payment rails do iGaming operators use?

Most licensed operators in 2026 offer debit cards, an open-banking or instant bank transfer option, one or more e-wallets, and the dominant local method in each market, such as Pix in Brazil or iDEAL in the Netherlands. Crypto is offered mainly by operators licensed in Curaçao, Anjouan or similar jurisdictions. The mix depends on what the regulator allows and what acquirers will process.

Cards and merchant category code 7995

Card schemes code gambling transactions as merchant category code (MCC) 7995, which covers betting, including lottery tickets, casino gaming chips, off-track betting and wagers at race tracks. That code lets issuers decline gambling on a card, lets players set gambling blocks in their banking apps, and puts gambling in the card schemes’ highest-risk tier. Under the Visa Integrity Risk Program, which replaced the Global Brand Protection Program from 1 May 2023, gambling is a Tier 1 category: the acquirer must register each gambling merchant and needs Visa approval to acquire the category. Mastercard runs its own registration programme for gambling merchants.

Miscoding gambling under another MCC to avoid blocks is a serious breach of scheme rules and, in many markets, a regulatory offence for anyone facilitating unlicensed gambling. Regulators and schemes both treat transaction laundering as a red flag.

Open banking and pay-and-play

Open banking lets the player authorise a transfer from their own bank account without card details. Some providers, Trustly being the best-known example in the Nordic markets, combine the payment with identity data from the bank, so that a deposit can also open the account: the model the industry calls pay-and-play. For operators the attraction is lower fraud, fast withdrawals to a verified account, and no card chargebacks. The limits are that identity data from the bank does not replace the operator’s own KYC duties where a regulator requires more, and that each payment provider needs its own payment-services authorisation.

E-wallets

Wallets such as Skrill, Neteller and PayPal sit between the player’s funding source and the operator. That convenience creates a compliance gap: when Great Britain banned credit cards for gambling, the ban extended to e-wallets funded by credit cards, so wallets that serve British operators must be able to identify and block credit funding.

Local methods: Pix in Brazil

Brazil’s licensed betting market, regulated under Law 14,790/2023, has some of the tightest payment rules anywhere. Ordinance SPA/MF No. 615 of 16 April 2024 allows deposits only by Pix, TED bank transfer, debit or prepaid cards, and transfers between accounts at the same institution, from accounts registered to the player. Cash, payment slips, cheques, crypto-assets, credit cards and other postpaid instruments are barred, as are third-party payments. In practice Pix, the central bank’s instant payment system, carries most of the volume.

Where are credit cards banned for gambling?

As of October 2026, credit cards are banned for gambling in Great Britain from 14 April 2020, for Australian online wagering from 11 June 2024, in Brazil’s licensed betting market under Ordinance SPA/MF 615 of April 2024, and in Sweden from 1 May 2026 under chapter 14, section 8 of the Gambling Act. Each rule targets debt-funded gambling, and several extend to wallets funded by credit.

The Commission’s stated rationale in 2020 cited research that 22% of online gamblers using credit cards were problem gamblers. Australia went further by including digital currency in the same ban, which makes crypto deposits unlawful for licensed online wagering. Operators in these markets need issuer-level identification of credit products, which usually comes from the card’s BIN data, and must check how wallets and open-banking payments are funded. Our responsible gambling compliance guide covers the affordability rules that sit alongside these bans.

How does payment blocking against unlicensed operators work?

Payment blocking makes it unlawful or risky for banks and payment providers to process transactions for unlicensed gambling. Norway has prohibited payments to unlicensed gambling since 1 June 2010, now under the Gambling Act (pengespilloven) in force from 1 January 2023. In Germany the GGL can prohibit payment providers from serving illegal operators, and in 2025 it cut 178 websites off from payment channels.

The German regime rests on the Glücksspielstaatsvertrag 2021 and the GGL’s enforcement powers, which it has held against illegal gambling since 1 July 2022. In 2025 it also recorded 1,843 illegal websites no longer reachable from Germany through prohibition orders and network blocking. Norway pairs payment blocking with DNS blocking from 1 January 2025. Both regimes mean that a payment provider serving an unlicensed operator takes on regulatory risk of its own, which is why reputable acquirers ask for licence evidence per target market. Our European markets overview covers the licence regimes, and our enforcement tracker records regulator actions against payment facilitators.

What is high-risk merchant acquiring?

High-risk merchant acquiring is card processing for sectors that schemes and banks treat as elevated risk, gambling included. Acquirers that accept iGaming merchants register them with the card schemes, usually require licence evidence for each market, and protect themselves with rolling reserves, higher fees and tighter monitoring of chargeback and fraud ratios. Losing an acquirer can cut a brand off from card deposits overnight.

Typical acquirer requirements for an iGaming merchant:

• A valid gambling licence for every market the merchant targets, and geo-blocking for the rest.
• Correct MCC 7995 coding and scheme registration before the first transaction.
• Strong customer authentication (3-D Secure) where the regulation requires it, as in the European Economic Area.
• A rolling reserve, where a percentage of settlement is held back for a fixed period against future chargebacks.
• Monthly monitoring of disputes and fraud against the schemes’ thresholds.
• Name matching between the account holder and the gambling account, and refunds to the original payment method where possible (closed-loop withdrawals).

Chargebacks in iGaming

Gambling chargebacks fall into three groups: genuine fraud using stolen card details, “friendly fraud” where the cardholder deposited, lost and then disputed the payment, and service disputes about withdrawals or bonuses. Card schemes watch each merchant’s ratio of disputes and fraud to sales. Visa consolidated its earlier dispute and fraud monitoring programmes into the Visa Acquirer Monitoring Program (VAMP) from April 2025, and merchants that exceed its thresholds face fees and possible termination. Operators keep ratios down with 3-D Secure, velocity limits, device checks, clear payment descriptors and prompt withdrawals, because slow payouts are a leading cause of service disputes.

Worked example: what a rail mix costs

The rates in this example are assumptions for illustration only, not market quotes. Assume EUR 5,000,000 of monthly deposits split across three rails, with chargebacks hitting cards only.

Moving ten percentage points of deposits from cards to open banking under these assumptions would cut the total to about EUR 96,000. The real gain is often larger, because reserve requirements and chargeback fees fall with card exposure.

Can iGaming operators accept crypto?

It depends on the licence. The Gambling Commission has not banned crypto-assets but, in guidance last updated on 28 March 2023, requires licensees to notify new payment methods, reassess money-laundering risk and manage price volatility. Australia bans digital currency for licensed online wagering from 11 June 2024 and Brazil bars crypto-assets under Ordinance 615. Curaçao’s CGA issued a dedicated crypto policy for licensees in June 2026.

The Gambling Commission’s crypto guidance

The Commission’s page on blockchain technology and crypto-assets asks licensees whether they accept crypto directly or through a third party. Direct acceptance means dealing with price swings against sterling, including how they affect deposit limits and money-laundering triggers, how funds are protected on insolvency, and what risk information customers receive. Where crypto is knowingly accepted through a third-party processor, the licensee must still obtain enough information to meet its own obligations. For applicants the line is firm: the Commission will not consider an operating licence application with a crypto funding element unless a full history of the source of funds is supplied. Our UK Gambling Commission guide covers the licence itself.

Curaçao’s 2026 crypto policy

Trade press reported on 24 June 2026 that the Curaçao Gaming Authority had issued its first dedicated crypto policy for B2C licensees under the LOK, the National Ordinance on Games of Chance in force since 24 December 2024. Licensees must submit a crypto policy within three months, complete risk assessments, due diligence on virtual asset service providers and staff training within six months, and reach full compliance within 12 months. Wallets linked to mixers, tumblers or sanctioned addresses are prohibited, and personal or beneficial-owner wallets may not be used. The Curaçao licensing guide covers the wider regime, including the fact that the CGA does not mediate individual player disputes.

How do MiCA and the travel rule affect crypto in iGaming?

In the EU, the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2023/1114) has applied in full since 30 December 2024, with transitional periods for existing providers ending by 1 July 2026. The recast transfer of funds regulation (Regulation (EU) 2023/1113) applies the travel rule to crypto transfers from the same date, so originator and beneficiary data must travel with each transfer between providers.

Gambling operators are not usually crypto-asset service providers themselves, but they depend on them. Three practical effects follow:

• Processor choice: an EU crypto payment processor must be authorised under MiCA once its transitional period ends, so operators should check the provider’s authorisation rather than its marketing.
• Self-hosted wallets: for transfers above EUR 1,000 to or from a self-hosted wallet, the provider must assess whether the wallet is owned or controlled by its own customer, which affects how deposits from personal wallets are handled.
• Stablecoins: MiCA regulates e-money tokens and asset-referenced tokens, and only compliant tokens can be offered by authorised providers in the EU. Curaçao’s preference for fiat-backed stablecoins points the same way from the gambling side.

What AML checks apply to iGaming payments?

Under the EU’s Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive (Directive (EU) 2015/849, Article 11(d)), gambling providers must apply customer due diligence on transactions of EUR 2,000 or more, whether stakes or winnings, single or linked. The new EU AML Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2024/1624) will apply from 10 July 2027. Most licensed operators verify every customer at registration anyway.

Payment data is central to that work. Operators match the payment account holder to the gambling account, refuse third-party deposits, return funds to the source where possible, and escalate source-of-funds checks when deposits outgrow the customer’s known means. Crypto adds wallet screening and blockchain analytics on top. The full framework, including source-of-wealth checks and suspicious activity reporting, is in our AML and KYC guide.

How has the payments picture changed since 2013?

In August 2013 Germany’s Federal Ministry of Finance described bitcoin as a unit of account, “more akin to private money” usable in multilateral clearing circles, one of the first official positions on crypto anywhere, and the same year bitcoin-only dice sites were launching with no licence at all. Since then the direction has run one way: credit bans in Great Britain, Australia, Brazil and Sweden, payment blocking in Norway and Germany, MiCA in the EU, and dedicated crypto rules from the Gambling Commission and Curaçao. In 2026 a payments strategy is a licensing question first and a conversion question second.

Frequently asked questions

Can a UK-licensed operator accept bitcoin deposits?

The Gambling Commission has not banned it. Its guidance, last updated 28 March 2023, requires licensees to notify a new payment method as a key event, review their AML risk assessment under licence condition 12.1.1, and manage price volatility, insolvency protection and customer information if they accept crypto directly. Acquirers and banks may still refuse to support it.

Why is MCC 7995 important for gambling merchants?

MCC 7995 is the card-scheme code for betting, including lottery tickets, casino gaming chips and wagers at race tracks. It lets issuers and players block gambling, and it places the merchant in Visa’s highest-risk tier under the Visa Integrity Risk Program, in force since 1 May 2023, so acquirers must register each gambling merchant.

Which payment methods are allowed for licensed betting in Brazil?

Ordinance SPA/MF No. 615 of 16 April 2024 allows Pix, TED transfers, debit or prepaid cards and transfers between accounts at the same institution, all from accounts registered to the bettor. Credit cards, other postpaid instruments, crypto-assets, cash, payment slips, cheques and third-party payments are not allowed.

Does Sweden allow e-wallet deposits funded by credit cards?

No. From 1 May 2026 chapter 14, section 8 of the Swedish Gambling Act bars licence holders from allowing or contributing to gambling financed with credit. Spelinspektionen expects licensees to block credit cards as a payment method and to counter e-wallet payments that are funded by a credit card.

What is a rolling reserve in iGaming card processing?

It is a share of each settlement that the acquirer holds back for a fixed period, then releases, so it can cover chargebacks if the merchant fails or disputes spike. Gambling merchants are commonly asked for one because of their high-risk classification. The percentage and holding period are negotiated per merchant.

Do EU crypto travel rule requirements apply to casino deposits?

They apply to the crypto-asset service providers that move the funds. Since 30 December 2024, Regulation (EU) 2023/1113 requires originator and beneficiary information on transfers between providers, and for transfers above EUR 1,000 involving a self-hosted wallet, the provider must assess whether the wallet belongs to its customer. Operators feel this through their processors.