MasterCard made an announcement about a week ago to state they would no longer allow online casinos to make charges on their users cards.  In fact they have a new software that shows what transactions are being processed.  Up until a few months ago MasterCard was unable to tell what a charge from online casinos was.  It made it impossible to block.  Now Visa is going to be following suit.  In an announcement on February 21, 2010 Visa said they would be blocking all charges for US players.  US players may want to use their credit cards to get money into their casino accounts, but the credit card companies do not want this to happen.

They feel the online casinos create too much debt and open them up to high risk.  For now the US players will be the only ones blocked by Visa for online gambling.  MasterCard has gone a little more with blocking any online gambling charge no matter where a person is located.

Part of the block comes from the UIGEA which blocks online casinos in the US.  Unfortunately, the UIGEA law will be changing this year.  If Barney Frank has enough pull he will be opening up US online casino gambling, which is another reason VISA has decided to put this block into place.  There are a couple of representatives in the house that want the law to change to allow online casinos, but most do not want the change.

Instead they feel online gambling is too much of a problem, which is why the law was made in the first place.  If these changes do occur it could mean changes for UK online casinos.  UK online casinos will be able to get into the US arena.  This means UK online players would have to battle US players for the jackpots and tournaments.

The US has been battling the EU regarding their laws, because the European Union also wants the US to open their doors.  The EU has stated that any country in the union needs to offer fair trade which applies to online gambling.  With all of the changes occurring in the world of online casinos, this could be the year that major adaptations occur.  Last year the UK had to deal with changes regarding taxes and online casinos moved to less regulated countries to offer more for their UK players.