Sunday, August 05, 2007

Use your credit card to play online poker

It's quick. It's easy. It works.

U.S. poker players can deposit money into Full Tilt Poker, PokerStars and Bodog accounts using your Visa or MasterCard. This isn't new exactly, but it seems like many people may not know about it.

I deposited to Full Tilt using my MasterCard for the first time today so that I could be credited with my $500 deposit bonus. I had to e-mail Full Tilt a few times before they would increase my deposit limit from $600 to $1,000 so I could take full advantage of the 50 percent bonus, but once they did, the process was super easy.

I clicked on the MasterCard option. I typed in my credit card number and three-digit security number. I waited 20 seconds for the transaction to be approved. And then the money was there.

A lot of people may have stopped playing poker or busted out after Neteller left the U.S. market. With few ways to get money back in to the poker sites, the games seemed like they got tougher.

Now, some of the players who didn't play because they didn't have an easy way to get money into their accounts will hopefully come back to the tables. By using a credit card, you don't even need to set up a third-party account through ePassporte or Click2Pay, which can take days or weeks to verify.

It's kind of funny how Full Tilt seems to have gotten around banks' inhibitions about being used to fund gambling sites. The transactions are processed through outside businesses that are not related to gambling. In my case, after I made my deposit, I received an e-mail from Full Tilt that said my deposit would show up on my credit card bill as a transaction with a video game Web site. Whatevers.

It should also be said that some credit cards may not process the transactions, but I know a few people now who have deposited without any difficulties at all. In some cases, even credit cards that didn't work in the past are successfully processing transactions now.

When it comes time to withdraw money from online poker sites, I've been requesting paper checks through the mail. I've done this several times with no problems.

So whip out your credit card and play some pokah!

9 comments:

kurokitty said...

That's so Dark Side but I call.

Alan aka RecessRampage said...

This is great. I'm gonna link this post!

DONKEY CALL!!!!!!!

lj said...

does it work on pokerstars also? i've deposited on ftp w/o a problem, but worry if i use same cc on stars it might flag it somehow...

Hammer Player a.k.a Hoyazo said...

I really don't understand this, as I tried depositing with my credit cards when I first sat down to play online poker the first time, and none of them worked. Anybody know why they work now, or if only some cards work to deposit into online poker sites these days?

I have a feeling that this only works for certain cards under certain circumstances. But I will check it out tonight.

Astin said...

Depends on the card provider. I don't think it's ALL Mastercards or Visas since they are all under the control of the issuing bank/instution. So if one provider has a site blacklisted and another doesn't, you can use one of those cards.

ie.- My Visa works on FT, but not Stars. My MC and AMEX also don't work on Stars. But I know people who can use theirs on Stars becuase it's from a different financial institution.

Hammer Player a.k.a Hoyazo said...

So what financial institution makes cards that work to deposit on these sites? We really ought to get that specific information out there, because if people could be depositing with credit cards all this time, they would probably want to know.

StB said...

I would assume they process the transaction as a cash advance? Might want to send some money to those cc companies so they don't ding you with 20% rates on the money.

Gnome said...

I checked my credit card statement, and it is indeed listed as a regular purchase -- not a cash advance. So no worries there.

Riggstad said...

posted an answer to this question on my blog...if anyone is interested