Just when you thought that it was safe to use your bank card to fund your online casino wallet, another bank has decided to ban transactions to online gambling sites. HSBC has recently announced that it is no longer processing any payments to online casinos Although the ban will officially take effect in June, HSBC has been declining payments to online casinos for several months.

The company has only decided to announce the ban after a local Maltese newspaper requested a statement. Public Affairs Manager David Hall replied: “We did not issue a press release [on the ban]. If you have an illegal site and you put out a notice saying you won’t allow transactions involving an illegal site, it would be perverse.”

HSBC has had an interesting relationship with the online gambling market since 2007, when the bank increased the surcharge for online casino transactions. Then, HSBC shut down two accounts for casino industry executives. These actions caused industry professionals to speculate that HSBC was going to conducting a purge of accounts that were associated with online casinos.

However, these rumours were denied, and the casino operator continued to process transactions for several more years. Now, the company has adopted a new stance. It seems as though HSBC does not want to be associated with the online gambling industry, especially since it remains unregulated in many markets around the world. So, HSBC card holders will have to seek out another way to fund their online casino accounts.

While PayPal is not commonly offered at online casinos, they are several e-wallets available. Skrill and NeTeller are two options that allow players to deposit into online casinos without having to divulge and personal banking details directly to the bank. This story is still developing, so we will keep you updated with further details as they emerge.

About the Author

George Anderson
Author George, has over 25+ years’ experience in the Pokies and Casinos industry throughout Australia and New Zealand. Loves to research new Pokies games on the block and follows announcements from top industry providers about their upcoming releases. As soon as a new interesting pokie game appears on his radar, George is there to check it out and give you the scoop before anyone else and tell you about all casino sites where can play the latest game. Before this gig, George worked as Pokie game tester, making him an ideal candidate for this genre of work. He is also an animal lover and a proud owner of three dogs.