Visa and Mastercard are under scrutiny for allowing UK gamblers to fund offshore gambling accounts. Investigate Europe looked into the matter and found a significant number of platforms offering at least one of these payment options, despite the companies committing a decade ago to only work with licensed operators.
Investigators found Mastercard on nine such sites and Visa as an option on two of them. Card payment providers earn a small fee for every transaction.
UK Gambling Commission confirmed it was aware of the platforms
The UK Gambling Commission confirmed it was aware of the platforms and will continue to try to take sufficient action against them, having received extensive complaints about several of the sites.
All-Party Parliamentary Group on Gambling Reform Chairperson Ian Duncan Smith remarked that the presence of Visa and Mastercard can give offshore sites credibility.
Mastercard responded to the revelations by saying that it’s up to individual banks to ensure that merchants act in line with its rules and that it doesn’t have direct relationships with the unlicensed platforms.
Black market gambling is a major issue in the UK, with an estimated £2.7bn ($3.5bn) spent annually on unregulated sites by people in the region.
