BetMGM will stop allowing customers to fund online betting and iGaming accounts with credit cards, becoming the latest major US operator to move away from a payment method that is coming under growing regulatory and political pressure.
Industry reports said the policy begins rolling out from March 31st, across the markets where the MGM Resorts and Entain joint venture is licensed to operate.
The timing is notable. BetMGM disclosed the shift during a Pennsylvania regulatory process that ended with a $100,000 fine after the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board found the operator had failed to prevent sustained fraudulent activity involving accounts opened with stolen identities and, in some cases, fraudulently obtained payment devices.
The PGCB said one fraud ring alone operated for 29 months and used 119 fraudulent accounts to place $895,092 in wagers.
In practice, the change means existing credit cards already linked to player accounts will be phased out, while new credit cards will no longer be accepted for deposits. This brings BetMGM into line with a wider industry shift that has gathered pace over the past eight months.
DraftKings moved first among the large national brands last August, and FanDuel followed this year, removing credit card deposits nationwide from March 2nd across sportsbook, racing and online casino, while keeping Canada outside the change.
The broader trend is increasingly clear; credit card restrictions are already in force in several US jurisdictions, and lawmakers in more states are trying to push the market further in that direction.
Virginia has passed the legislature and would prohibit the use of credit cards to fund sports betting accounts if signed into law, while Maine lawmakers have advanced legislation designed to ban credit cards in sports wagering as a consumer protection measure.
For operators, the commercial impact may be limited, but the compliance read-through is more important. The industry is moving toward a model in which credit-funded gambling is becoming harder to justify, both politically and from a safer gambling perspective.
BetMGM’s decision looks less like an isolated payments tweak and more like another marker that US operators are being forced to tighten the edges of the regulated product.
