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Ok if we didnt already have enough challenges with US players here’s the news from Europe:
France and Germany
As of 11:59 PM on June 29th Visa and MC have forced all French banks to stop processing all NON-CODED and coded transactions for online casinos. As far as we can learn the same ban will be happening in Germany as early as next week.
95% or more of all the non-coded processing was processed in France and Germany.Bank One (Received from Referback. This may mean a number of chargebacks are anticipated)
We have been informed that Bank One no longer allows their credit cards to be used for Internet Gambling Transactions. This communication has been sent directly to the cardholders of Bank One cards, where they state in a letter that they “have made the decision to decline all payment transactions that are believed to be Internet gambling related.”I find this very alarming, not just from the point of view of gambling.
What the hay are financial institutions doing telling us how to spend our money?
This is a new trend and it is very disturbing.
They hold our money, and they will give it to us only for things they happen to approve of.
:rolleyes:
I agree with Dom
What gives them the right to decide how someone must spend the money on their own credit card !??
This really makes me mad , not only as a webmaster but as a player too!!
I don’t know what to think of this new development.
For one, losing France and Germany won’t hurt me too bad…
But it is the looming probability that the US will enforce sanctions on credit card companies facilitating online gambling transactions that really scares me.
Suppose the worse happens: France, Germany, and the US all bow out of the online gambling market…Sure, there may be a few ways around this, like sending personal checks to offshore gambling establishments or western union.
But the real result is that the market collapses on a couple key geographic points: the United Kingdom, South America, China, Japan, and the Middle East.
Of those, I think the Middle East has a lot of potential…Those oil barons must like to do something with all their money.
But the question is whether or not to expand business now, or wait out the storm?
I was just beginning a plan to expand, but now I’m shirking away from it…
Should the focus of the industry shift to new markets, or to new ways of processing gambling transactions from the old ones?
:confused: Desperate for input from the veterans….
Conspiracy theory
These laws that cause banks to shut down processing are backed by land-based casinos who are afraid that offshore online casinos are taking away their business.
Its a war between land based casinos and online casinos. And so far we are loosing. Why? Because they keep nailing us through government connections. Bribing polititians is legal in US, and many other countries. That gives an opportinity for lb casinos to stop their customers from spedning money online.
Casino business is quite conservative, and operators don’t like changes. Thats why they see threat from any new development, in this case – Internet. Instead of exploiting the opportunity, they try to avoid the unknown by killing the competition. Their motivation – unknown.
Only MGM has opted to go online, but that didn’t last either. They don’t know how to make money on the Net, hence they decide to prevent online casinos from taking their share of revenue.
Online casinos are remaining idle. Perhaps because they are spread all over the world, and have no connections with lawmakers. Apparently they try to stay as far from law makers and enforcement as possible. But that could be a big mistake.
What you gus are saying is common sence. The law allowing banks to senser what you pay for is in contradiction with 1st amendment. Who can say now that USA is a free country? You are free to speak, you are free to travel, but your government will tell you what you should spend your money on.
There is a good chance to oppose such legislation. But that would require all online caisnos to focus on this problem together. Are they doing that? Not as far as I know. Who knows why.
The government itself doesn’t want to allow offshore online gambling either. Their concern is that billions are being lost to offshore companies. Then why they don’t they regulate in-house online caisnos? (see above). The way they explain it: its hard to stop kids and problem gamblers from wagering online. They say online gambling industry creates more problems than jobs. But that’s what they say to media people in hope to get more voters on their side. All of those claims are doubtful. There is little difference between lb casino and online casino in that respect.
In Las Vegas you can play slots everywhere. Once you walk out of a plain at LV airport you can play slots. How do you stop problem gamblers there?
So behind these statements there should be some other reason why government doesn’t want to regulate online gambling instead of prohibition. The only thing that comes to mind – someone is backing this legislation. Who else but land-based casions would be interested in the prohibition? Nobody. Certainly not players.
What does it have to do with France? Don’t forget that VISA is a US-controlled company. USA is the policeman of the world. The government has a few tools up their sleeves: banking and force. They use the tools to dictate their policy to other countries. Another argument against online gambling – is that its a money laundring instrument. Yeah right. Do they really think that major players like Microgaming, casino-on-net and others have nothing better to do than run a money laundring operation? If that’s true, then Iraq indeed has bioweapons, and they couldn’t find’em because Saadam packed them up in his travel bags and left.
Just like Madonna said: “nothing is what it seems”.
What can you do? Nothing. Links on your portals to legislation opposition sites are useless too. There were a lot more people opposed to war in Iraq, that didn’t make any difference.
Although they try to stop banks from processing and stop us from gambling, the legislation will only create some inconvenience. As long as there are gamblers who want to gamble, and online casino that want to make money, there would always be a payment system that will allow the parties to work together.
Vlad K
2K Services, IncActually, the casinos ARE doing something about it.
Here is how all of us can help:
Here is a link to a banner farm for this:
http://www.casino-sites.biz/tools/wagerprofits/specialtypopups/preview.html
The banners should be linked to http://www.profreedom.com .
There will be a way to make your opinons known when you click through. You will also be informed about ongoing developments.
Put these banners prominently on your sites to allow players to do something about their rights.
It is time for us to all pull together and unite to help our industry flourish!
Good point Dominique and Good Plan. I dont know how much of a difference we can make to the special interests who are ramrodding this through the legislative process, but I suppose its worth a try. Thanks for the link.
I am not trying to play it smart or offend any of you guys in any way. I am just stating my personal opinion and what I
was able to find out until now.Has anyone validated the “recent ban” of
MC/ Visa in France, Germany and other European jurisdictions with their credit card processors ?My processor was not informed, and was unable to validate any of this information about Visa and MC. However the US targeted operators should be concerned, but no the European ones.
Have you seen any serious reactions from the press or any serious discussions within the industry ?
I haven’t seen anything except a post in the startcasino forum.
Why such an important matter was not officially discussed in the Global Interactive Gaming Summit in Montreal ?
I believe this is a persistent bad rumor, but is only a rumor up to now !
I can’t say for sure what will follow in the next weeks, maybe the rumor will turn to real nightmare
I read it at several sites including startcasino and gambling911 plus one or two others before I decided to include it here. You may very well be correct Parker, but we won’t know for sure until we see how the numbers develop in July.
Obviously it would be to everyones benefit and relief is this was a premature report or just a rumor. Time will tell.
And regardless of whether this bit of European news is correct or important, http://www.profreedom.com does need to be promoted and spread widely all over the net.
The available letters are changed frequently and all precautiuons are taken to make this a valid and effective campaign to repel the law that will be in front of the American Senate.
I cannot begin to stress how omportant this is!
Dominique,
Thanks for the link. I am aware of the site. But its outdated now.
The letters are sent to House of Representatives, which has already voted, and you know the results. As you can see I was right that sites like these don’t help much.parker,
So far it had no effect on our merchant accounts in France. Hopefully this is just a rumor. Luckily we have multiple merchant banks. Only one of them is in France. But that’s just us.
Maybe some of you guys are interested in reading this article from the University of Las Vegas Nevada.
It doesn’t really answer any questions of what is going to happen in the future, but it is related.
It was published 05/19/2003
Trouble in the Netherlands to.
It’s allover the papers, Holland Casino (the largest land-based casino in the Netherlands) is putting pressure on the government to shut down online casinos.
Even as an affiliate i can get a 10.000 euro fine and maby even jailtime.
So now i’m a criminal.
I’m moving my sites offshore ASAP.
(and i’m deleting my Dutch translations)It’s sick how they can make criminals out of honest folk just to inflate thier own pockets.
I can see that becoming a reality in north america. I’d be surprised if they didn’t make any law retroactive. Meaning we’d be held liable for old sites and years past.
Antoine
