MasterCard Bans Online Casinos Overnight

05th February, 2010

Many of the best online casinos in the US were given a rude awakening this morning, as MasterCard imposes an immediate overnight ban on online gambling payments.

The US finance giant is a major player in the means of crediting casino accounts for online casinos such as Doyles Casino, and the news that they have toughened their policing of credit card use for online gaming has sent shock waves around the industry.

Many online casinos have worked around Mastercards previous ban, by coding any transaction from MasterCard as someting else - thus shielding themselves from potential fines.

And rumours abound suggest that their US rival card company Visa is also set to follow suit. Whilst not confirmed, this would be another major blow to the online casino world across the pond.

MasterCard's latest action comes on the back of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA),which was passed in an overnight coup by the US Government back in October 2006, which affectively banned all online gaming in the United States.