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Credit Cards Fighting
Against Online Casinos
Credit Card companies are requiring
that online casinos sites give warnings that online gambling may
be illegal in some jurisdictions. The request comes out of a
recent lawsuit against a credit holder, Cynthia Haines. Cynthia
was sued by her card issuer Providian Bank for having used her
cards for the purposes of online gambling.
Haines, feeling taken advantage of
because her credit card companies say nothing about restrictions
concerning online casinos, counter sued her card issuer for
allowing her to gamble with the MasterCard in the first place.
Master card and Visa seeing the error,
decided to settle with Haines in July. There was only one
requisite to the settlement. Online casino companies must warn
costumers of the fragile legality of electronic gambling. Haines
ran off like a bandit at the end of the case. Rather than having
to pay the outstanding debts she incurred on her credit card, the
online sites she gambled on will be responsible for her
accumulated expenses.
Visa claims that they are not "every
where you want to be" when it comes to online gambling
transactions in the US. States such as California consider online
casino site transactions illegal. The credit card company can not
be held responsible for any business conducted by costumers in
these areas where such gambling is not permitted.
As an added measure of precaution,
Visa is sending notices to all its card holders saying that there
are certain restrictions set in place to prevent gambling online.
the company does not wish to have their consumers plead ignorance
in such cases as Haines. The Visa company seems to be banking on
the undecided ban of online casino transactions as they pertain to
credit card payments.
Internet gambling debts can not be
collected by credit card companies in areas that have laws
prohibiting such activity. California will not permit Visa to
collect any incurred debt through this medium. If the laws are not
changed, Visa stands to loose a lot of money. The winner in this
case is definitely Haines, who not only has been allowed to gamble
illegally in the state of California, but also got off scott free.
-Current
Online Casino News-
-August
News-
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