Don’t worry, it happens all the time. If you tried to deposit with a credit card at a gambling site and your deposit was rejected, you can thank the UIGEA for that. The UIGEA (full text here) is short for the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act.
The UIGEA didn’t specifically criminalize online gambling, but it did pressure majors banks located in the United States to stop doing business with gambling sites, poker sites and casinos. In response, many banks now automatically reject credit card and debit card deposits to known gambling sites.
The gambling sites responded to that response by coming up with all kinds of funny ways to get around those credit card restrictions. I’m not sure how it all works or what the legal implications are for those casinos, but it works for the most part.
But of course, “for the most part” is different than “always.” Sometimes credit card transactions to gambling sites are successfully blocked. This usually happens to players in the United States, but players located in other countries can are also occasionally caught up in the net.
What do I do next?
The first thing is to make sure your card actually has the necessary funds. Make sure you used the right card, the right numbers and the right expiration. Make sure also that your gambling account uses the same address as the address attached to your credit card.
Sometimes, a blocked transaction is just due to you typing in a wrong digit or using the card that you deactivated last week. I know that I’ve made such errors when buying things online.
If you’re sure everything is right and that your card is funded, then it was probably blocked by your card issuer. This doesn’t mean anything bad is going to happen to you, but it does mean you need to find a different deposit method.
Try using a different credit card first. Sometimes one card will work just fine while the other gets blocked every time. Internet gambling is weird like that.
If you don’t have any other cards, go back to your casino’s cashier area and see what other deposit methods they have available. Every gambling site that I’ve ever visited has had at least two different deposit methods for US players.
If you don’t have any other cards and your casino doesn’t offer any other deposit methods, you’ll just have to pick a different gambling site. It’s a pain, but sometimes that’s how it goes when you gamble online.
Oh yea, there’s one last thing you can do before you switch casinos. Somewhere on the deposit page there should be a customer support number. Give them a call and tell them you had a problem depositing. Sometimes they can process that same card over the phone.