Visa Poker Sites
Visa is the most popular credit card for poker deposits, with good reason. With the possible exception of China’s UnionPay, Visa is the largest credit card network in the world. Visa issues more cards each year and handles more online transactions, so it makes sense that poker sites would support Visa deposits first and foremost. In certain countries (Europe, Asia), Visa withdrawals are available. Visa has a robust package of rewards, incentives, and cashback, which helps lower the cost of online poker gambling — or increase you’re profits if you’re a skilled poker player.
“Verified by Visa” is a popular system for making e-Wallet payments, so anyone with a Visa credit card should be able to fund their poker gaming with their favorite payment method. On our debit card poker sites page, we’ll discuss Visa Electron, Visa Debit, and the older Switch and Solo lines of Visa debit.
MasterCard Poker Sites
MasterCard is a close second to Visa when it comes to credit card gambling sites, with over 2000 betting operators which accept MasterCard deposits. As a general rule, MasterCard withdrawals are rarer than Visa payouts. That being said, MasterCard is a popular deposit method among poker players, because it is the second-largest credit card network in the west. MasterCard’s rewards program and its seeming ubiquity with online merchants is such that it is a 1A choice alongside Visa among online cardrooms. Almost anywhere you want to play poker online, you’ll be able to make a MasterCard deposit. Maestro Debit is also popular, though I’ll discuss that on the debit card poker room page.
American Express Poker Sites
Cardplayers will find many Amex poker sites in the United States poker market. American Express has the best rewards and cashback among the big three credit card companies. Amex has excellent other services, including fraud protection and theft insurance. American Express also is famous for its high transaction limits, meaning US high rollers love to make Amex poker deposits. This builds up rewards points by funding one’s card playing, which in turn translates to Amex cashback.
A few restrictions exist for American Express cardplayers that don’t for MasterCard and Visa cardholders. Amex is more of an US or North American phenomenon. Also, few online poker sites accept withdrawals using American Express.
Discover Card Poker Sites
Discover Card is an unofficial fourth major credit card in the United States. Seldom will you see an online poker site which advertises Discover Card deposits or withdrawals. That’s because Discover assigns an online gambling merchant code to any sites known to provide online poker. When a player tries to make a Discover Card payment to the cardroom, the bank which issues the Discover Card automatically rejects the transaction, based upon that code. Despite that, you might see an online betting site advertise Discover Card deposits or discuss them on their terms of use (T&C) page. In particular, Ignition Casino (Poker), Slots.lv, and Las Vegas USA are thought to accept Discover Card payments with your acceptance. In the non-US poker market, Mr Green and 777.com are said to have accepted Discover Card deposits before.
If that perplexes you, I can clear up the confusion, because I once spent time discussing Discover Card policies with several gaming sites’ call centers. By default, Discover Card blocks all international transactions. Call Discover to activate your credit card for international transactions. Then try to make a poker site deposit with your Discover Card. Since a credit card network consists of thousands of individual banks and financial institutions which issue cards, your individual Discover card issuer might accept poker site deposits or agree to waive the merchant code band on poker deposits. Such financial institutions would never accept Discover Card withdrawals, though. Also note that Discover Card has business partnerships with JCB in Japan, Diners Club in Australia, and China UnionPay in China, so those are countries where Discover Card is more likely to be useful for online transactions.
Japanese Credit Bureau (JCB) Poker Sites
Japanese Credit Bureau or JCB is the largest credit card network in Japan. Many Australian and New Zealander poker sites accept payments using JCB. Card sites that cater to Oceanian and Asian nations do so, as well. JCB has a strategic partnership with Discover Card, but you will find few US-friendly online poker sites which accept JCB deposits and withdrawals. That is partly because Discover Card is not used in online gambling, and partly because of the prevalence of international offshore online poker sites in the US gaming market.
Diners Club Poker Sites
Diners Club is not as famous as Visa, MasterCard, or Amex, but Diners was the first modern credit card. Diners Club’s credit services began in 1949-1950 at Majors Cabin Grill restaurant in New York City. Frank McNamara, a co-founder of Majors Cabin Grill, first conceived of allowing loyal customers to run a tab at his restaurant. That evolved into a card that allowed patrons to charge their dining expenses on what were then called “charge cards”. The Diners Club charge cards evolved into modern electronic credit cards. A few years later (1956), Bank of America issued the first general use credit card, Visa, and the rest is history.
Despite being the first, Diners Club never competed on the level as Visa or MasterCard, because it never intended to. Credit cards proved so popular that Diners Club Services did become a general use credit card eventually. In 2018, Diners Club International is accepted in 59 countries worldwide. Many Australian poker sites accept Diners Club deposits. These days, Diners Club is aligned closely with MasterCard. The company website says that the Diners Club Card is available at 38 million merchants worldwide that accept MasterCard payments.
UnionPay Poker Sites
China UnionPay (CUP) is the only major card services network in China. UnionPay was founded in 2002 and has a monopoly on interbank networking and ATM services in China. As such, it is the world leader in combined credit and debit payment transactions — as well as the number of cards issued. UnionPay has surpassed Visa and MasterCard in those categories, though many westerners still consider Visa and MasterCard as the largest, because of their international networks. It should be noted that China UnionPay supports payments in 125 nations worldwide. Ironically, it might be easier to use China UnionPay poker deposits outside China these days.
From 2015 to 2018, it looked like China UnionPay might become a major source of poker deposits in the Asia and Oceania regions. 120 online betting sites (1xBet, Red Star Poker, etc.) claimed to accept China UnionPay deposits. Earlier this year, though, the Chinese Culture Ministry banned poker payments, as well as any references to poker on China social media sites. Chinese poker advocates claimed such a policy would lead to a lack of interest in Texas Hold’em in China eventually, so China UnionPay might not ever become a leader among credit card poker sites.
