The simplest payment option when depositing to an online gaming platform is to use a debit or credit card you normally use for other payments online.
This is usually the case when online gaming is properly regulated in your jurisdiction and the platform is licensed and operates officially (meaning pays taxes, follows privacy policies, and so on).
Like all other normal online merchants, gaming platforms usually have these typical online payment options like Visa, Mastercard, Maestro, etc. So it is only natural to send money via these methods.
However, if you look at less widely popular gaming sites in Canada, you will quickly see certain nuances when it comes to depositing and withdrawing with the help of a plastic card.
Not being aware of those nuances often makes players confused about what they can and can’t do, about managing their payments, and so on.
In this post, we will discuss several important considerations to address before using a debit or credit card to pay for online games, and also to withdraw money from online video games that allow this function.
How Gaming Platforms Treat Credit Cards for Deposits
The overwhelming majority of gaming sites allow making payments using debit and credit cards. However, many platforms actually prohibit sending money from credit cards.
The point here is to prevent people from paying with money they do not actually own. When the player registers an account, they have to indicate their personal data, provide proof of residence, and prove that the money they want to deposit belongs to them. These are normal things for the KYC (Know Your Customer) procedure at any regulated and licensed site.
During the verification procedure, the team will check if the card indicated is a debit or credit one, and some can, in fact, prohibit payments from a credit card.
Customers who usually pay with a credit card, even if they have their own money, can get really confused about their transaction being suspended or rejected, not being warned or aware that the problem is their credit card.
Also, because of the fact that plastic cards are always connected to bank accounts and banks are usually not very welcoming about payments from unusual merchants, online video games like crypto games or play-to-get-paid games may have problems with sending money to plastic cards. This way, players who prefer something more complicated than just plain old video games may face issues not only with sending their payments to the gaming site but also with cashing out.
Bank Accounts & Cards VS Online Casino Gambling
Banks do not treat online gaming kindly for a bunch of reasons even in jurisdictions where online gaming platforms are properly regulated and supervised. In practice, it means that even if a player has a plastic card and can use it for online payments, this is not a default situation that they can make deposits and withdrawals with it when playing games.
This can happen also in situations when it is the very first transaction of that type, if the transaction is very big (bigger than some average transactions), when the customer gets such transactions very often, or when something actually goes wrong with the website that pays.
In these cases, the transaction can be suspended or blocked, or the customer may even have issues with their bank account. Some banks feel so much pressure about the risks of transactions from unusual gaming platforms or applications that they totally prohibit payments from such merchants.
Also, in some banks, it depends on the type of account the user has. Certain accounts just do not allow accepting any payments whatsoever, and the player has to be aware of that.
There is another issue with the banks that some beginner-level online players ignore. When someone gets really lucky and claims up to 150 free spins for $1 and starts winning, or they trade a weapon or a rare skin in their favorite video game, the bank can start asking questions about the source of these funds and whether they are legal.
While most provinces in Canada do not apply taxes to such types of wins or incomes, regular transactions that suddenly start flowing in make the banks instantly start wondering.
Online game platforms have strict anti-money laundering policies and they prevent players from uncontrolled paying for the games and withdrawing from the games, to a certain degree. However, banks have even more severe rules (which is quite understandable), and all the incoming funds that look like untaxed income or money laundering operations will instantly cause issues.
The Time of Withdrawal
One of the key issues with credit and debit cards when it comes to cashing money out from a video gaming platform is the withdrawal waiting time. Most players want their winnings on their balance as fast as possible and the best sites try to manage within 24-48 hours to send the payouts.
However, if you withdraw to your card-slash-bank account, both online platforms and banks apply so many verifications and security checks that it takes way longer to process the transaction, regardless of how small it is.
Normally, gaming sites like casinos or cryptocurrency gaming platforms start applying extra security checks if the payout exceeds $2,000 or equivalent in other currencies, which obviously takes extra time.
If the withdrawal request is confirmed, the bank starts processing the transaction and eventually, the withdrawal waiting time for plastic cards takes from five to ten business days (so it is basically two full weeks in practice), compared to three or four days for e-wallets, or even faster for cryptocurrencies.