This evening Eye On Gambling's own, "The Shrink" (Ken Weitzner), will make an appearance on CNN Headline News with host Glenn Beck to discuss the H.R. 4411 bill being voted on by the House of Representatives which among other things would "prohibit credit cards and other payment forms, such as electronic transfers, from being used to settle online wagers. The bill also would give law enforcement officials the authority to work with Internet providers to block access to gambling websites" (AP).
The show will air at 7PM EST and again at 9PM EST and Midnight EST on CNN Headline News (DirecTV Channel 204, DISH Network Channel 202).
When offshore gambling sites first popped up 10+ years ago, the quick and easy way to deposit money into them was via credit card.
Around 6-7 years ago, most credit card companies started denying payments to any "gaming website". While they claimed they were taking the moral high ground, the real reason is having to deal with chargebacks. Since it is against the law to collect on any gambling debt in the US, you had people running up their credit card bill at gambling sites, then protesting the charge and the card companies did not have a legal leg to stand on -- they certainly couldn't take anyone to court claiming they were owed this money that they knew was being used for gambling.
When the card companies started denying payments, people started using middleman payment processors. The processor of choice was Paypal. Fees were high, but often times you could get the sportsbook to pick up the fees if you made a deposit.
In 2002, when EBay bought Paypal, they decided they wanted to stop handling any grey area business since they were a large company and didn't want the legal liability. This meant dropping payment processing for most porn sites and gambilng sites. The irony of this was that Paypal made its name in the industry (and its fortune) off of gambling and porn sites, but was now ditching them now that they had achieved a higher status.
When this happened, Neteller -- an offshore payment processing company -- was the one who got the biggest boost in business. With even higher fees, they essentially did what Paypal was doing (though with much less regulation and customer service). After a few years many people found they could no longer do credit card deposits to Neteller, so most have resorted to actually making direct bank deposits from their bank to Neteller. Neteller is still around today and is still what most people use to make sportsbook deposits.
Western Union is also a company many people use, but people have found more and more they are asking a lot of questions on who exactly you are sending the money to -- obviously the government is putting the heat on them as well.
Over the years many other small payment processing companies have popped up... All of course unregulated, but with the lack of viable options for getting money into offshore books, people have taken the chance.
Credit card companies have been blocking transactions to offshore sportsbooks for over 4 years now. There's a few out there you can still get a deposit processed, but not many.
When this occurred, Paypal was the middleman for a year or so before they were bought by EBay. Ebay then shutoff payments to most bookies and porn sites.
Now Neteller has stepped in and is the middleman most use... But a law like this impacts far more than just that -- it also impacts any website that has any kind of advertisement from a sportsbook or casino.
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This evening Eye On Gambling's own, "The Shrink" (Ken Weitzner), will make an appearance on CNN Headline News with host Glenn Beck to discuss the H.R. 4411 bill being voted on by the House of Representatives which among other things would "prohibit credit cards and other payment forms, such as electronic transfers, from being used to settle online wagers. The bill also would give law enforcement officials the authority to work with Internet providers to block access to gambling websites" (AP). The show will air at 7PM EST and again at 9PM EST and Midnight EST on CNN Headline News (DirecTV Channel 204, DISH Network Channel 202).
When offshore gambling sites first popped up 10+ years ago, the quick and easy way to deposit money into them was via credit card. Around 6-7 years ago, most credit card companies started denying payments to any "gaming website". While they claimed they were taking the moral high ground, the real reason is having to deal with chargebacks. Since it is against the law to collect on any gambling debt in the US, you had people running up their credit card bill at gambling sites, then protesting the charge and the card companies did not have a legal leg to stand on -- they certainly couldn't take anyone to court claiming they were owed this money that they knew was being used for gambling. When the card companies started denying payments, people started using middleman payment processors. The processor of choice was Paypal. Fees were high, but often times you could get the sportsbook to pick up the fees if you made a deposit. In 2002, when EBay bought Paypal, they decided they wanted to stop handling any grey area business since they were a large company and didn't want the legal liability. This meant dropping payment processing for most porn sites and gambilng sites. The irony of this was that Paypal made its name in the industry (and its fortune) off of gambling and porn sites, but was now ditching them now that they had achieved a higher status. When this happened, Neteller -- an offshore payment processing company -- was the one who got the biggest boost in business. With even higher fees, they essentially did what Paypal was doing (though with much less regulation and customer service). After a few years many people found they could no longer do credit card deposits to Neteller, so most have resorted to actually making direct bank deposits from their bank to Neteller. Neteller is still around today and is still what most people use to make sportsbook deposits. Western Union is also a company many people use, but people have found more and more they are asking a lot of questions on who exactly you are sending the money to -- obviously the government is putting the heat on them as well. Over the years many other small payment processing companies have popped up... All of course unregulated, but with the lack of viable options for getting money into offshore books, people have taken the chance.
These businesses have been around since the credit card companies started denying gambling transactions years and years ago.
Credit card companies have been blocking transactions to offshore sportsbooks for over 4 years now. There's a few out there you can still get a deposit processed, but not many. When this occurred, Paypal was the middleman for a year or so before they were bought by EBay. Ebay then shutoff payments to most bookies and porn sites. Now Neteller has stepped in and is the middleman most use... But a law like this impacts far more than just that -- it also impacts any website that has any kind of advertisement from a sportsbook or casino.