Mar 3

This potential product may be termed and marketed as a “home ATM and smart card” or a “global debit card,” which might pique any banker’s interest. However, this refers to the Internet gambling business.

Many companies have found ways to let people wager on-line. The firms work through banks and computer servers in other countries — many in the Caribbean — and get foreign merchant processors to help them accept MasterCard and Visa payments. The U.S. residents might be given a free bank account in the host country, which can be funded with a debit card or credit card cash advance, and then used online. Internet gambling is a “gray area we would rather not get into at this point,” said Kirk Sanford, chief executive officer of Global Cash Access. ” U.S. banks and processors do not regard gambling as inherently taboo. The lion’s share of merchant processing for the traditional, physical-world gambling industry is handled by Global Cash Access, a joint venture of First Data Corp., BankAmerica Corp.’s BA Merchant Services subsidiary, and USA Processing. See more on this topic in an article from American Banker.