How Casino Credit Card Transactions Actually Work

Why This Matters

Most casino review sites tell you to “just deposit with Visa.” They don’t explain what actually happens to your money between clicking “Deposit” and seeing funds in your casino account. Understanding the transaction flow explains why banks block deposits, why you get charged cash advance fees, and what your options are when things go wrong.

This is the technical guide we wish existed when we started testing casino deposits in 2019. It’s written for Canadian players, using Canadian banking examples, based on our real testing across 34 casinos and 9 banks.

The Transaction Flow: Step by Step

Step 1: You Enter Your Card Details

When you type your credit card number into a casino’s deposit form, you’re not actually communicating with the casino’s own systems. The deposit page is typically hosted or handled by a third-party payment processor — companies like Worldpay, Nuvei, or Paysafe that specialise in moving money between cardholders and merchants.

The casino sends your card information to their payment processor via a secure (PCI-DSS compliant) connection. At this point, the casino itself doesn’t process the transaction — they hand it off to the processor.

Step 2: The MCC Code Is Assigned

This is the critical step that determines everything that follows. The payment processor tags the transaction with a Merchant Category Code (MCC). For gambling transactions, this is MCC 7995 — the code designated by Visa and Mastercard for “betting/casino gambling” transactions.

MCC 7995 is defined in the Visa Merchant Data Standards Manual and Mastercard Transaction Processing Rules (Chapter 5). It’s not optional — legitimate payment processors are required to use the correct MCC code. Some processors in the past attempted to use non-gambling MCC codes to avoid bank blocks, but this violates network rules and can result in the processor losing their ability to process Visa/Mastercard transactions entirely. [Source 6]

Step 3: The Acquirer Processes the Request

The payment processor sends the transaction to an acquiring bank (also called the acquirer). The acquirer is the financial institution that has a relationship with the casino’s processor and is authorised to submit transactions to the card network (Visa or Mastercard).

The acquirer submits an authorisation request through the card network to your bank (the issuing bank, or issuer). This request includes the transaction amount, the MCC code (7995), and the merchant information.

Step 4: Your Bank Decides — Approve, Decline, or Cash Advance

Your issuing bank (the Canadian bank that issued your credit card) receives the authorisation request and makes two decisions:

Decision 1: Allow or block?

• TD Bank: Auto-declines MCC 7995 transactions. Has done so since 2013. [Source 4]
• Scotiabank: Declines non-provincial gambling MCC 7995 transactions per cardholder agreement Section 5.1. [Source 5]
• RBC: Restricts MCC 7995, but approximately 20-30% slip through inconsistently. [Source 3]
• BMO: Allows MCC 7995 but classifies as cash-like transaction. [Source 1]
• CIBC: Allows MCC 7995. No gambling restriction in current T&Cs (January 2025 revision). [Source 2]
• National Bank / Desjardins: Generally allow but with inconsistent results across processors.
• Credit Unions: No system-wide MCC 7995 block. Highest acceptance rates.

Decision 2: Purchase or cash advance?

If the bank allows the transaction, it then classifies it. Most Canadian banks classify MCC 7995 as a cash advance rather than a purchase. This classification triggers a different (higher) interest rate, an immediate flat fee, and eliminates the grace period. This is not a casino-specific policy — it’s how your bank treats the merchant category code.

Step 5: Funds Appear in Your Casino Account

If approved, the authorisation travels back through the chain: issuer → card network → acquirer → processor → casino. The casino credits your account, typically within seconds of approval.

But from the moment the transaction is authorised, your credit card is accruing interest at the cash advance rate. There is no 21-day grace period. The clock starts immediately.

Why Banks Code Gambling as Cash Advance

Banks classify gambling transactions as cash advances rather than purchases for several interconnected reasons:

• Risk management: Gambling transactions have higher chargeback rates than standard purchases. By coding as cash advance, banks discourage the behaviour through higher costs.
• Regulatory guidance: Canadian financial regulators have signalled that facilitating gambling on credit carries risk. Cash advance coding is a soft deterrent.
• Revenue: Cash advance fees and the higher APR generate more revenue for the bank than standard purchase processing. Banks have a financial incentive to maintain this classification.
• Visa/Mastercard rules: The card networks allow issuers to classify MCC 7995 as cash advance. Most Canadian issuers have chosen to exercise this option.

What Happens on a Decline

When your bank declines an MCC 7995 transaction, the decline code is sent back through the same chain. Common decline codes for gambling blocks include:

• 05 — Do Not Honour: Generic decline. The bank has rejected the transaction but doesn’t specify why. Most gambling blocks use this code.
• 57 — Transaction Not Permitted: The card is not authorised for this transaction type. This is more explicit and usually means MCC 7995 is specifically blocked.
• 61 — Exceeds Withdrawal Limit: Less common but can occur if the transaction triggers cash advance limits.

The casino typically shows a generic “transaction declined” message. They don’t know why your bank declined — they only see the decline code, not your bank’s internal reasoning.

The Chargeback Process for Gambling Transactions

One of the genuine advantages of credit card deposits is chargeback rights. If a casino refuses a legitimate withdrawal or engages in fraudulent behaviour, you can dispute the original deposit transaction with your credit card issuer. Here’s how it works for gambling:

1. Contact the casino first. Your bank will require evidence that you attempted to resolve the issue directly. Document everything — screenshots, chat logs, emails.
2. File a dispute with your bank. Call your credit card issuer and request a chargeback. Provide your evidence. Common valid reasons: casino refused a legitimate withdrawal, casino closed your account with funds remaining, or the transaction was unauthorised.
3. Bank investigates. Your bank contacts the acquirer, who contacts the casino’s processor. The casino has a window to respond with evidence.
4. Resolution. Chargebacks for gambling transactions have specific rules under Visa and Mastercard dispute frameworks. If the casino can’t demonstrate that funds were delivered and terms were met, the chargeback is typically approved.

Why Some Casinos Have Higher CC Acceptance Rates

Not all casinos have the same credit card acceptance rate, even when you use the same bank card. The difference is the payment processor. Casinos that use processors with stronger relationships with Canadian acquiring banks tend to have higher approval rates. Jackpot City, for example, has a 98.2% CC success rate — the highest we’ve measured — partly because their processor has well-established Canadian banking relationships.

Casinos that use newer or less-established processors, or processors based in jurisdictions with weaker banking relationships, tend to see more declines. This is one of the factors in our scoring methodology — we weight CC acceptance rate at 30% of the overall score because it directly reflects the quality of the casino’s payment infrastructure.

MCC 7995 classification per Visa Merchant Data Standards Manual and Mastercard Transaction Processing Rules, Chapter 5. Cash advance coding based on our review of Big 5 cardholder agreements [Sources 1–6]. Transaction flow based on standard payment industry processes and confirmed through our testing.