Payment Processing for MGA-Licensed Operators

An MGA licence is one of the most widely recognised gaming licences, and it opens the door to acquirers that run gambling programmes. What decides the outcome is not the licence alone but which markets you take players from, how you protect player money and how you verify players. Acquirers check all three before they board you.

Last reviewed October 2026

The licence acquirers look for

Since the Gaming Act of 2018, the MGA issues a B2C gaming service licence to operators that offer games to players, and a B2B critical gaming supply licence to suppliers. For card acquiring you need the B2C licence, issued to the same legal entity that will sign the merchant agreement, with its entry on the MGA register.

Gaming acquirers keep lists of permitted jurisdictions. You can hold a respected licence and still be declined by a particular acquirer because it is not allowed to process players from one of your markets. That is a hard boundary, not something to negotiate on price.

MGA rules that shape your payments

Payments to and from players may only go through payment providers notified to the MGA, so adding a new acquirer means notifying it first.
You may not give players credit to gamble.
Players must be able to set deposit limits.
Withdrawals are paid within five working days where practicable, and may be held while checks are completed.
Player money is legally separate from the operator's money, and your balances must always cover what you owe players.

AML thresholds that affect deposits

Under the FIAU's rules for remote gaming, customer due diligence is required once a player's deposits reach €2,000, and no withdrawal may be paid until it is complete. Prepaid cards, crypto, other people's cards and transfers between gaming accounts are treated as higher-risk ways to fund an account. Acquirers read your list of payment methods with exactly this in mind.

What acquirers check before boarding an MGA operator

Your licence, its register entry and the entity that holds it.
The markets you accept players from, and how geo-blocking is enforced.
Where your deposits actually come from, by country.
Player verification, deposit limits and responsible gaming tools on the live site.
How player funds are held, and your payout process.
Recent processing statements with approval, refund and chargeback rates.

Deposits and payouts are separate capabilities

An acquirer that handles deposits well may not cover payouts in your markets. Confirm both directions before you commit, because the MGA's withdrawal timelines still apply if your payout route is missing, and any second provider has to be notified as well.

Reserves on a gaming programme

Reserves are common in gaming. A percentage of each payout is held for a set period before release, so the amount tied up grows with your volume. Work out what the offered percentage and hold period mean on your own monthly deposits before you agree, and ask when the terms will be reviewed.

Try it with your own numbers

Rolling reserve calculator

See what that percentage and hold period would tie up on your own volume.

How Acquipayer helps MGA operators

Acquipayer is not a payment provider. We connect MGA-licensed operators with payment providers whose gambling programmes cover their markets, through one online application.

Add your licence, company, markets, volumes and payment methods once.
We match you with a provider that boards MGA-licensed operators in your markets.
Your account is prepared with the provider, ready for MGA notification and going live.

Sources

Gaming Act (Cap. 583), Malta.
MGA Directive 3 of 2018 (Gaming Authorisations and Compliance Directive), Article 45.
MGA Directive 2 of 2018 (Player Protection Directive), Articles 14, 27, 29, 37 and 38.
FIAU, Implementing Procedures Part II: Remote Gaming Sector.

Check your own situation

Whether a provider boards you depends on your licence, markets, volume and history. Answer four questions to see which payment routes may fit your business.

Four questions about your business

Industry, company country, customer markets and estimated monthly volume, that is all we need to begin.

Industry

Company country

Monthly volume

iGaming

An iGaming payment solution is the combination of acquirer, PSP or gateway, local payment methods and payout rails that lets an operator take deposits and pay out winnings. Which of those will work for you is decided almost entirely by licensing and player geography: a provider that boards a Curaçao-licensed casino is rarely the same one that boards a UKGC-licensed brand, so the first step is matching your licence and markets to an acquirer's gambling programme.

United Kingdom

A UK company is straightforward to onboard for card payments. What decides the outcome is usually your industry, your trading history and where your customers are, not the country of registration. Getting the Companies House details, settlement account and UK-specific rules right from the start makes onboarding much faster.

Curaçao Gaming Authority (CGA)

A Curaçao licence can get you card acquiring, but it is the licence acquirers question hardest. Since the LOK took effect on 24 December 2024, operators are licensed and supervised directly by the Curaçao Gaming Authority, which removes the main objection to the old sub-licence model. Acquirers now look past the licence to your markets, your AML controls, your crypto exposure and your processing history.

UK Gambling Commission (UKGC)

A UK Gambling Commission licence is one of the strongest a gambling operator can show an acquirer, but it also comes with the most detailed payment rules of any major market. Credit cards are banned, deposits may only run through regulated payment services, and financial vulnerability checks are triggered by net deposits. Your payment setup has to be built around those rules from day one.

Gibraltar gambling licence

Gibraltar licenses some of the largest gambling operators in the world, and acquirers treat it accordingly. Since 1 April 2026 the jurisdiction runs under a new Gambling Act, and its AML rules are stricter than most: every customer who deposits goes through enhanced due diligence. For your payment setup, that means strong controls at the point of deposit and clear evidence of where player money comes from.

Isle of Man Gambling Supervision Commission (GSC)

An Isle of Man licence tells an acquirer that your payments are already supervised closely: the Gambling Supervision Commission approves every payment method you use before it goes live, and player money must be protected in full. That makes underwriting more predictable, provided your file shows the same controls the regulator has already approved.

Chargeback rate too high

Visa flags a merchant once fraud reports and disputes reach 1.5% of settled transactions with at least 1,500 cases in a month in most regions, and Mastercard at 1.5% of transactions with at least 100 chargebacks in a month. Above those lines come fines, reserves and in the end a closed account. The good news: most chargebacks have a small number of causes, and some fixes start to show within weeks, although the schemes measure monthly and Mastercard needs three months below the limit before you leave its program.

Merchant account terminated

A termination stops your card payments and follows you into your next application. Whether it becomes a lasting problem depends mostly on one thing: whether your acquirer also put you on Mastercard's MATCH list or Visa's terminated merchant list. Find that out first, then build a file that answers the next underwriter's questions before they ask them.

A rolling reserve was requested

A reserve is not a rejection. The provider is holding part of your settled money to cover refunds and chargebacks that can arrive months after you have been paid. It delays income rather than taking it, but it can tie up a large share of your working capital, so get the exact terms and run them against your own numbers before you accept.

iGaming payment processing in Malta

An MGA licence makes you eligible for card acquiring, but it does not get you an account on its own. Acquirers that board gambling merchants have to meet extra card-scheme obligations for MCC 7995, so they underwrite your licence, ownership, AML controls, target markets and processing history before they accept you. Once you are live, MGA and FIAU rules decide which payment providers you can use, how fast you pay players and when you must verify them.

Chargeback ratio

Your chargeback ratio is the number of disputes in a month divided by a month of transactions, shown as a percentage. Mastercard flags merchants from 1.5% of chargebacks and Visa from 1.5% of fraud plus disputes in most regions, both with minimum counts, and most acquirers act before that. It is the number that decides whether you keep your account, so know exactly how your provider calculates it.

Rolling reserve

A rolling reserve is a percentage of each payout that your acquirer holds back for a fixed period, typically three to six months, before releasing it. It covers refunds and chargebacks that can arrive long after you have been paid. The money is still yours, but while it is held it is not working capital, so the terms matter as much as your processing rate.

Check which payment routes may fit your business

Answer a short set of questions about your business and we will check your profile against the requirements providers have given us. No approval is decided here.

Check my payment options

Nothing is shared with a provider until you submit your onboarding pack. Approval is always the provider's decision.