German regulations ban on online casino transactions through Visa and Mastercard

Online casinos targeting German consumers will no longer be able to use Visa or Mastercard services, as a fresh wave of restrictive legislation has been launched directed at the iGaming industry and payment providers that pass money to and from online casinos.

Visa has instructed banks in Germany not to allow online casino deposits and withdrawals using their cards. A giant spokesman for financial services said the company recently approached its retail banking partners to ensure that "only legitimate purchases that are properly authorized are processed" using its credit cards.

It has also emerged recently that German online casino players do not use their Mastercard credit cards to deposit money and withdraw their gaming websites winnings. Casinos usually responded that Visa and Mastercard had either told them to remove the two companies from their list of available payment options in Germany or to lose access to Visa and Mastercards in all the markets in which they operate. The state of Lower Saxony in Germany last month directed an unnamed payment service provider to refrain from engaging with illegal online gambling transactions , i.e. casino websites.

Last summer, the state again sent a similar notice to an unidentified payment provider, which was widely believed to be PayPal by local media, as the company announced shortly after that notice that its services to German online casino players were being shut down. Lower Saxony's Minister of Interior and Sports, Boris Pistorius, said last month that payment service providers are 'legally obligated to refrain from making payments in connection with illegal gambling' and advised them to 'critically evaluate and, if possible, immediately stop working with companies engaged in illegal gambling. Earlier in 2020, Minister Pistorius sent a letter to the country's banking sector urging financial institutions to stop processing illegal gambling capital.