Well over 40 years ago, several big California-based banks created the cooperative credit card institution that has become MasterCard Worldwide, a listed company on the New York Stock Exchange. MasterCard plastic is honored virtually everywhere in the world, and can be used as a means of transferring funds into e-wallets and directly into online gambling accounts. MasterCard can also be a means of receiving money back from casinos when a withdrawal is made from an account.

MasterCard charges a fee for “plasticizing” a transaction. If the card is presented to the merchant, the fees are lower, around 2.5% on average. When the card is not present, as is the case with online transactions, the fee is usually higher, around 3.5% to 4.0% The three-digit number on the physical card is used to validate to the merchant that they are dealing with the actual cardholder or an authorized agent. A few casinos require that the cardholder telephone the casino after completing the transaction to add verbal authorization.

A debit card version of the MasterCard credit card is also in widespread use. Often it is called MasterMoney, and is an ATM and debit card with the MasterCard logo on it. It functions in the same way as MasterCard for purposes of making online deposits and payments, when allowed.

In the debate over US regulation of offshore and Internet gambling, government regulators tried to hold credit card companies responsible for transfers from US residents to offshore gambling operations. Credit card companies showed that this was an unreasonable burden on commerce, and would slow all international financial traffic, so the law did not directly impose a restriction. Regulators, however, have been seeking to limit transfers from the US to offshore gaming businesses, and increasingly the credit card companies have programmed their equipment to reject transactions headed for a recognized gambling site.

Even in the rest of the world – beyond the US, China, Turkey, Israel and Malaysia – MasterCard is not always the cheapest way of transferring funds. Such transactions are considered cash withdrawals, and are subject to additional fees, which casinos will often pass off onto the customer. (Sometimes casinos advertise in a promotion that they will absorb the credit card fees on a deposit to open an account.) Recognizing that credit card transfers are essentially borrowed money, people who need to control their urge to gamble should probably stick to using debit cards instead.