Bookmakers Cards

How card payments work at a bookmaker

You type the card number, expiry and security code in the cashier, confirm with 3-D Secure in your bank’s app or by one-time code, and the deposit is on the betting account at once. Payouts go back to the same card as a refund or a card credit (Visa Direct, Mastercard Send), which takes the bookmaker’s approval plus one to five days at the issuer; where the issuer cannot receive the credit, the bookmaker pays by bank transfer.

The scheme itself charges you nothing. The fees are the issuer’s: a mark-up on the exchange rate when the bookmaker bills in another currency, and, on a credit card, a cash-advance fee with interest from the day of the deposit, because most issuers book gambling as cash. In the United Kingdom (since 14 April 2020) and Australia (since 11 June 2024) credit cards cannot be used for gambling at all, and the ban covers money routed through wallets.

Four schemes on this page appear in no cashier of the 65 bookmakers reviewed: American Express and UnionPay forbid gambling merchants in their own rules, Diners Club rides on the Discover network and RuPay is locked in by Indian law. Their pages explain how to use the card anyway, through a wallet that accepts it.