US Online Casino American Express Payments a Rumor

August 21, 2009 | News Category: Casino Banking

0 Comments

Recently, a there was much excitement that American Express is once again accepting online credit card payments for online casinos in the United States. The news articles that carried this story seem to have based their information on rumors, and not fact.

American Express will not be making payments to any online gambling sites in the US, including online casinos. The well-known credit card company has denied the rumors, and will not be accepting payments via the American Express card. in a statement, they explained that they would not be honoring any payments that their card holders try to make at online gambling sites. They also said that they will drop any of their vendors who try to get around the rule.

The article first appeared on Gambling Online, which ran a report the Rome Casino would be accepting American Express deposits to their online casino. Opening up this payment channel at this time would have gone against the current American Express policy.

In response to the news article, the American Express Vice President of Corporate Affairs and Communications, Christine Elliott, made a point of stressing that the credit card company has made no such changes to their policy.

“It is a long-standing policy that American Express cards cannot be accepted for gambling – either online or offline and the Rome Casino is no exception. Any merchant found to be in violation of this policy is terminated immediately from card acceptance," said Christine Elliott.

Elliott continued to explain that "As a matter of fact, American Express has sent legal notification to the Rome Casino that they are not authorized to accept the American Express Card and are not authorized to use our marks."

At the time of the writing of this article, Rome Casino is still displaying the American Express logo, along with other credit card logos. The online casino states that they accept credit card payments, although these transactions are sometimes blocked by the credit card companies. They also recommend that their players look for an alternate payment method, and reward them for doing so.

The news site that published the article has removed the original article with an explanation of the mistake.

At this time, the policies of US credit card companies are not headed for change unless the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) is abolished. Although Barney Frank and others are working toward this end, US players should continue to find alternate methods of payment until such time as the law changes.