Visa Looks to Block Online Gambling Transactions

Following in the footsteps of Mastercard, Visa has also decided to start blocking online gambling transactions (all of them).  Many establishments have long gotten around these efforts through the practice of using different coding, which conceals the type of transaction occurring.

The Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act (UIGEA) makes it illegal for banks to process certain types of online gambling transactions, however, implementation of the law will not go into effect until July 1 and there is some question as to whether further delays are possible.  Policy enforcement was initially supposed to have gone into effect October 1. 

Democratic Congressman Barney Frank has been attempting to eliminated the provisions as they apply to online poker via a legislative measure.