Can You Use Stripe or PayPal for Gambling?
Stripe's UK list prohibits gambling, including casino games, betting, lotteries and games of skill with a money prize. PayPal allows gambling only with its prior approval, and only where the operator and its customers are all in jurisdictions where it is legal. Most gambling operators therefore process cards through a merchant account with an acquirer that has a gambling programme.
Last reviewed October 2026
What Stripe says
Stripe's UK list of prohibited and restricted businesses (updated 22 September 2026) prohibits games of chance, including internet gambling, casino games, sweepstakes and fantasy sports with a money prize; games of skill with a money prize, including video game tournaments and card games; entry fees that promise a prize; sports forecasting and odds-making; lotteries; and bidding fee auctions.
What PayPal says
PayPal's Acceptable Use Policy (last updated 12 October 2026) lists gambling, gaming, prize draws and contests among the activities that need its approval. That covers casino games, sports betting, horse and greyhound racing, fantasy sports, lotteries, games of skill whether or not legally defined as gambling, and sweepstakes. It allows them only if the operator and customers are located exclusively where the activity is legal.
How gambling card processing works instead
Card schemes treat gambling as its own category, MCC 7995, with extra rules: acquirers must register online gambling merchants with Visa and Mastercard, and transactions must be coded correctly so card issuers can decide whether to approve them. An acquirer with a gambling programme handles that registration and checks your licence before you go live.
- A gambling licence for the markets you serve, such as Malta or the UK.
- Geo-blocking for markets your licence does not cover.
- Age and identity checks for players.
- Responsible gambling tools and clear terms on the website.
- Company documents and identification for owners and directors.
Games of skill and sweepstakes
Both Stripe and PayPal include games of skill with a prize in their gambling rules, even where local law does not call them gambling. If you run tournaments, fantasy contests or sweepstakes, apply as what you are and explain your legal basis, rather than describing the business as general gaming.
How Acquipayer helps
Acquipayer is not a payment provider. Licensed operators complete one online application and are matched with a payment provider that accepts gambling for their licence and markets. Final approval and terms are always the provider's decision.
Acquipayer is not affiliated with Stripe or PayPal.
Sources
- Stripe, Prohibited and Restricted Businesses (United Kingdom), updated 22 September 2026.
- PayPal, Acceptable Use Policy (United Kingdom), last updated 12 October 2026.
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Related merchant problems
Stripe alternatives for high-risk businesses
If Stripe declined your business, restricted it or closed your account, the usual reason is your category, not your company. Stripe publishes a list of businesses it prohibits outright and businesses it only accepts after extra checks. If you are on that list, the alternative is a merchant account with an acquirer whose policy covers your industry, set up with your risk assessed before you start.
PayPal alternatives for high-risk businesses
PayPal does not ban every high-risk business, but it requires approval before you accept payments for many of them, and taking payments without that approval breaks its Acceptable Use Policy. That is a common reason for a limited account or a held balance. If PayPal will not approve your activity, or you want more stability, the alternative is a merchant account with an acquirer that accepts your industry.
Declined by payment providers
Being declined again and again is rarely about your business being bad. Most declines come from a mismatch: the provider does not accept your industry, your markets or your history, or something in your application could not be verified. Find the real reason before the next application, because applying to more providers with the same file usually gets the same answer.
Related guides
MCC 7995
MCC 7995 is the merchant category code Visa and Mastercard use for betting and gambling: casino games, sports betting, lottery tickets, casino chips, wagers at race tracks and other games of chance with prizes of monetary value. Under Visa's rules, a merchant that takes online gambling payments has to put all its transactions under 7995, even if gambling is a small part of its business. Both schemes treat the code as high risk, which means scheme registration, more declined payments and fewer providers that accept it.
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.
Offshore gambling payment processing
An acquirer looks at two locations when an offshore gambling operator applies: where your players are, and where your business is really run from. Your licence and company get you considered, but your player markets decide whether you are accepted, which acquirer can take you and on what terms. An operator in Curaçao, Costa Rica or the Caribbean with clean, lawful markets is often easier to board than one with a stronger licence and players in the wrong countries.
Mastercard GMAP
From 1 April 2027, Mastercard brings its chargeback and fraud monitoring programs together under a Global Merchant Audit Program. The existing excessive chargeback and excessive fraud tiers continue, but the chargeback threshold falls step by step from 1.5% to 0.9% by 2031, and new dispute tiers count fraud reports even when no chargeback follows. Mastercard has not published the program openly, so the figures below come from industry and acquirer reports of its bulletin and should be checked with your acquirer.
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