Visa Making Same Premature Move that Mastercard Made
A lot of people are saying that this is an unsurprising move. Not me, I’m surprised. I’m actually kind of shocked. Mastercard pulling out of online poker, i kind of got. It’s been a good long while (i’m talking years) since i’ve been able to use Mastercard to load any online casino’s. But using a virtual visa (and full disclosure here: i have no idea if Virtual Visa is the same as Visa..) had been a staple of my online money management. At best they are positioning themselves to miss out on a huge opportunity that Mastercard presented them when they pulled out of the online gambling business. At worst they are being pragmatic about a bill that looks increasingly like it will never take effect.
Why Would They Do This Now?
Credit Cards being limited for online spending is nothing new, really. American Express and Discover have been banning online gambling transactions for years. With Mastercard pulling out just weeks ago, i was prepping for a post where i was praising Visa for keeping the status quo until the law actually came into effect. So what is the motivation for putting this move into effect now? It could be that fraud is widespread, and with the amount of money changing hands through online casinos, it would be a good way to “clean” money. But that is total speculation. It’s also equally likely that they view Mastercard’s pullout as a signal to where the industry is going, and instead of becoming leaders, they are just following the flock.
Is this Really That Big a Deal?
The short answer is not really. It kind of sucks, but in reality there are countless sites dedicated to getting your money online to use any way you like. There are even full websites that outline how load money onto most poker sites with step by step instructions. While it may be a pain if your chosen loading method had been visa, you may have to go through bank account authentication etc, but most poker sites have at least 5 different methods to load money so you should be able to find something to fit your needs.
