iGaming Payment Processing for MGA-Licensed Operators

Card schemes treat online gambling as a high-integrity-risk category. An acquirer that processes MCC 7995 takes on registration and monitoring duties with Visa and Mastercard, and is responsible if a merchant takes bets from countries where it is not allowed to operate. That is why many acquirers do not board gambling at all, and why the ones that do ask for more than a standard e-commerce merchant would ever provide.

In practice the licence is the entry ticket. What decides approval, pricing and reserve terms is how clearly you show where your players come from, how you verify them, and how your deposits and chargebacks have behaved so far.

• Your MGA licence: the licence type, the games it covers and the legal entity it was issued to. The applying entity should match the licence holder.
• Ownership and control: company documents, ultimate beneficial owners and directors, with identification for each.
• Target markets: the countries you accept players from, and proof that you are licensed or otherwise permitted to operate in each one.
• Geo-blocking and age verification: how you stop players from markets you do not serve and confirm that every player is an adult.
• AML framework: your business risk assessment, customer due diligence procedure and the name of your MLRO.
• Responsible gambling tools on the live site: deposit limits, self-exclusion and clear terms.
• Processing history: recent statements showing volume, approval rates, refunds and chargebacks. A new operator without history should expect a smaller starting limit or a reserve.
• Payment flows: which methods you plan to offer, expected average deposit, and how and how fast you pay out.

• Notified payment providers only: you may accept payments from players and pay them only through payment providers notified to the MGA, and your safeguards must match the risk of each payment method. Adding a new provider or method therefore needs a notification before it goes live.
• No credit to players: you cannot extend credit to a player to fund play.
• Deposit limits: players must be able to set deposit and wagering limits.
• Withdrawals: where practicable, withdrawals are paid within five working days. They may be held while you complete identity and due-diligence checks.
• Player funds: player money is legally separate from the operator's money, and your balances must at all times cover what you owe players. Player funds may be held with a licensed credit, financial or payment institution approved by the MGA.

Remote gaming operators follow the FIAU Implementing Procedures for the remote gaming sector. Customer due diligence is required once a player's deposits reach €2,000, counted cumulatively, and bonuses and winnings do not count towards the threshold. The player's risk assessment and due diligence must be completed within 30 days, and you cannot pay out a withdrawal until it is done.

The procedures also treat some funding methods as higher risk: cash and other anonymous methods, prepaid cards, virtual assets, cards or accounts belonging to someone else, and transfers between gaming accounts. Deposits from the player's own bank account or card at a reputable institution are treated as lower risk. Acquirers read your payment-method list with exactly this in mind.

Some card issuers decline or block MCC 7995 transactions outright, and cardholders in the EEA must pass strong customer authentication under PSD2. Both reduce the share of card deposits that succeed, especially in a player's first session.

• Offer bank transfers and e-wallets next to cards for markets where you are licensed, and respect any gambling block a player has set with their bank.
• Run 3-D Secure properly for EEA cards instead of treating it as a cost: a failed authentication is a lost deposit, a missing one can be an unauthorised payment.
• Use a clear statement descriptor with your brand name, so players recognise the charge and do not dispute it.
• Track approval rate by country and by issuer, not as one global number. A drop in one market usually points to one issuer's policy.
• Never retry a declined gambling transaction under another code or through another merchant account.

Payouts to cards travel as original credit transactions, and the schemes set limits on them that differ by scheme and region, so large wins are often paid by bank transfer instead. Paying out to the method the player deposited with, after due diligence is complete, keeps third-party funding visible and makes your AML controls easier to explain to an acquirer.

Plan payout capacity at the same time as deposits. An acquirer that only offers deposits leaves you meeting the MGA withdrawal timelines with a second provider, which in turn has to be notified.

• MGA licence and the certificate for the legal entity that will hold the merchant account.
• Corporate documents, UBO and director identification.
• List of target markets with your licence or legal basis for each.
• AML business risk assessment, CDD procedure and MLRO details.
• Live website with terms, responsible gambling tools, age verification and geo-blocking.
• Recent processing statements, if you already process.
• Planned payment methods, average deposit, monthly volume and payout process.

Acquipayer is not a payment provider. We connect MGA-licensed operators with a payment provider that boards gambling businesses, through one online application.

• Add your business details and documents once: licence, company, target markets, volume and payment methods.
• We match your profile with a payment provider that accepts MGA-licensed gambling operators and covers your markets.
• Your account is prepared with the provider, and you move on to going live and taking deposits.

• Malta Gaming Authority, Directive 3 of 2018 (Gaming Authorisations and Compliance Directive), Article 45.
• Malta Gaming Authority, Directive 2 of 2018 (Player Protection Directive), Articles 14, 27, 29, 31, 37 and 38.
• FIAU, Implementing Procedures Part II: Remote Gaming Sector.
• Visa, Visa Integrity Risk Program.
• Mastercard, Security Rules and Procedures, specialty merchant registration.

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