Gambling on Visa cards to be banned in Germany

Visa cards could soon be banned from online casinos that operate in the German market due to illegal gambling transactions that reportedly take place. More specifically, Visa has requested its partner banks in Germany to stop processing both deposits and withdrawals being made with its cards on online casinos; in order to make sure that only legal and properly regulated payments are processed.

It is worth noting that some German gamblers asked why their cards are no longer accepted by online casinos and most operators responded that they will be suspending credit card payments until further notice. Other operators, such as Tipico, no longer mention Visa on their webpage; while Bwin declared that from now on Visa cards are only available for sports betting.

It is also worth mentioning that a year ago, government officials asked PayPal to block German players’ transactions on international online casinos. Furthermore, in January local banks were warned against processing payments that were related to foreign online casinos. As a matter of fact, the government has launched the crackdown on payment processors in order to combat illegal gambling in any possible way.

Germany has already introduced a new plan regarding online gambling licenses, through which it aims at regulating the market by July 1, 2021. Its main objective is to grant licenses to online casinos, by placing some limitations though on their operations. More specifically, it is planning to limit their slots stakes, prevent their players from logging on two sites at the same time and prohibit third-party marketing affiliates. Nevertheless, several operators are opposed to these propositions and as a matter of fact, an Austrian bookmaker claimed in court that the whole process lacks transparency.