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Bankroll Management VISA & MasterCard Blocking All Online Poker Transfers


Texas Hold'em Rules Posted on 23 February 2010 at 5:48 am EST by JoeOE18 | Permalink
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Ever since the arrival of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, U.S. residents have  How Ya Like Me Now?
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found it increasingly difficult to play poker online. When the bill was passed in 2006, half of the  lolzzz_321’s blog
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market immediately withdrew, vastly decreasing the choices available to American players. The  Muzz’s Blog
UIGEA did not target the act of gambling online, but prohibited it by the back-door by barring by Muzzard
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financial institutions from transferring money to online gambling websites. Now the country’s by Robert
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two biggest credit card providers, MasterCard and VISA, have joined the group of companies  When spooning it now
who will not allow their services to be used for any kind of online gambling transactions. Millions goes wrong.
by spoonitnow
of Americans who fund accounts using their day-to-day debit and credit cards will now have to  The Warpe Factor

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ERG Magazine speculate that the card companies have been prompted to act by the outcome of  FTR Member Blogs
a particular federal case. Canadian Douglas Rennick has been charged with illegally overseeing  Poker News Writers &
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around $350 million worth of transfers to and from online gambling sites. His latest appeal
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concluded just a few weeks ago with the guilty verdict being upheld. Perhaps afraid of similar
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federal punishment, both MasterCard and VISA have decided to cut off all online gambling  Aussie Millions
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companies.  B&M Casinos
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Different kinds of card payments are assigned a different four-digit code. These codes, agreed Leaderboards
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upon by all card companies, are used to help banks understand what kind of service they are  EPT (45)
transferring money to. Online gambling companies are supposed to use the code 7995, but  Everest Poker
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MasterCard allege that countless firms are miscoding their payments in order to avoid a block. (7)
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They cite a crackdown on this kind of deceit as the reason for the sudden upturn in gambling  FTOPS 07 (21)
sites that no longer accept their cards.  FTOPS 08 (26)
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Despite MasterCard’s claim, it does seem that they are disallowing online poker transfers that
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have nothing to do with miscoding. Customers making deposits on PokerStars have begun to  FTOPS 13 (15)
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report that their cards are being declined, despite having enough free cash to fund their  FTOPS 15 (7)
accounts. PokerStars have issued a statement regarding the credit card issue, denying that they  FTR Exclusive
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have been involved in miscoding. “PokerStars does not, nor ever has engaged in the practices of  FTR Gauntlet
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‘mis-coded’ credit card transactions. We have therefore been unaffected by any crackdown by  FTR Gauntlet
Visa or Mastercard to close down such ‘mis-coded’ accounts.” They also add weight to the claims VII (8)
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that MasterCard and Visa are caving in to pressure from the UIGEA. “The only way that  Full Tilt
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PokerStars is affected by credit card declines is when issuing banks in the United States decide (37)
that they will decline 7995 coded transactions.”  Full Tilt Poker
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This is one of the most wide reaching clampdowns so far and will affect a huge portion of the
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online gambling user-base. However, most online poker players will already have faced Poker (35)
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problems depositing and withdrawing on their favorite sites. Many banks already decline simple Rail (63)
transfers, forcing players to use eWallets like PayPal and Moneybookers. These options remain  ISF Strategy
(16)
available and will likely become the de-facto choice for anyone looking to make a deposit. It is  Ladbrokes (1)
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also important to note that these new blocks any apply to cards registered in the United States. Leaderboards
Online gambling is not illegal in most other countries and most worldwide residents can continue (21)
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to fund their online poker accounts just as they always have done.  NAPT (2)
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VISA & MasterCard Blocking All Online Poker Transfers « Poker Blogs Page 2 of 2

Poker activists will be hoping that the MasterCard & VISA ban is short lived. The UIGEA does not (18)
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technically come into effect until June 1st 2010, giving Congressman Barney Frank and his allies (404)
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time to push through legislation designed at installing a legalized and regulated online gambling Leaderboards
industry. If new bills are not introduced before the deadline, it could become even more difficult (16)
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This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010 at 5:48 am and is filed under Online Poker, Poker News. (77)
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1. John Miller says:  January 2010
February 23, 2010 at 1:02 pm  December 2009
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I think most players already have a Moneybookers or Neteller account. So I don’t see a
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big issue in the credit card ban. Cheers.  July 2009
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