New Credit Card Code Passed for Online Gambling

Since its inception, online gambling has had issues with major card payment organizations. All too often, those organizations would decline a payment if it was found to be going to an online gambling site.

The reason? The code. 7995, a Merchant Category Code used for transactions coming from online casinos, is considered to be a code that is used for illegal gambling. That’s all about to change.

This past week, New Jersey legalized a brand new credit card code for online transactions. The new code, 7801, will now be used for transactions made at government-licensed casinos. This will differentiate shady transactions from the legal ones.

That’s great news for site operators.

For the past several months, online gambling has been on the rise in New Jersey, Nevada, and Delaware. Pennsylvania appears to be poised to legalize online gambling. Several other states are considering it as well. Now that there’s a legal code, players will be able to directly fund their habit from their bank, which will bring in a flood of new players. This also leaves the door wide open for potential no deposit bonus promotions.

With no deposit bonus promotions, players are essentially given money to play online. It’s one of the best bonuses offered by online sites, and many online players cite it as the sole reason that they prefer to play online versus going to a casino.

Sites can offer both cashable and non-cashable bonuses, and they’re exactly as they sound. To cash out a no deposit bonus, the player must play a certain number of games and win more than a certain amount. For a non-cashable bonus, the player can treat it as free money and do with it what they wish, as they’re essentially just playing for fun.

The new credit card code has launched, and according to Matthew Katz, CEO of CAMS, he expects a “slight increase” in credit card authorizations now that the new code has launched. Given the upward trend of revenue over the past quarter, Mr. Katz, we respectfully disagree that there will be a “slight increase”, and we fully expect this to be a game changer.

The new code also lends credibility to the online gaming industry, which is still preparing to take off nationwide. Now that a set of guidelines has been proposed and a credit card code has been set up, the online gaming industry is in a better position than it’s ever been in.

Many site New Jersey’s revenue last year – $122.9 million – as “far less than widely predicted”. Between the popularity of the online gaming industry and this new legal code, the industry is poised to shatter this record – New Jersey generated almost 10% of 2014’s entire revenue in the month of March alone.