Following on from the Gambling Commission’s announcement that credit cards will not be able to be used from the fourteenth of April onwards to make deposits to betting companies, the eBank Revolut has confirmed that this will include their pre-paid cards. It comes in the wake of the UKGC’s review of online gambling as well as the government’s own review into Gaming Machines and Social Responsibility Measures.

Back in March 2019 Revolut customers were caught in confusion when some gambling transactions were being declined. This was due to anti money laundering measures however and separate to this block on credit card use.

Mar 28, 2018 Hey, I am sorry, but it seems they have revamped the FAQ and removed the “help article”, which eas previously called “What is not supported with Revolut?” and that article included some non-supported transactions or merchants with a low limit of spending, such as online betting/gambling, online dating, sex/porn webites etc. Revolut and Bookmakers/Gambling sites So in the recent days, it seems like Revolut discontinued support for some online bookmakers such as bet365, betway, unibet. I for one am affected by this as I use my Revolut. Revolut Prepaid Gambling Review – How To Deposit Into Online Casinos, Poker Sites And Sportsbooks That Accept Revolut Deposits According to a global banking outlook study carried out by EY Advisory. Mar 28, 2018 If yes, then it might be because Revolut unfortunately does not work with some merchants and betting sites might be one of them. Instead you can do a bank transfer if the site allows deposits this way.

Revolut is technically referred to as a ‘money service business’, so falls under the government’s new restrictions that has been put in place on credit card transactions in the world of gambling. It applies to non-remote general betting, pool betting and betting intermediary licences as well as all remote licences. Though the vast majority of people gamble responsibly, some do struggle with managing their finances and it is hoped this will clamp down on that.

Update 16/09/20: Revolut Now Offering Debit Cards Which CAN Be Used For Online Betting

It seems that Revolut have found a way around the rules and, for the time being at least, it is possible to use Revolut for online betting. The issue came from the type of card that Revolut issued – as a pre-paid debit card gambling transactions became restricted when the new UKGC rules came in.

However, it is now possible to order a traditional debit card that is linked to your Revolut account rather than a pre-paid one. This should work the same was as any other debit card so you will be able to continue to use Revolut at the bookies if you order a new debit card.

Note: In our test transaction it initially declined but turned out to be because of a setting blocking online transactions that was automatically applied to the new card, simply enable online transactions and it should work fine.

Why The Ban Is Being Introduced

The United Kingdom Gambling Commission announced that it would be banning the use of credit cards by consumers looking to gamble. Coming into effect on the fourteenth of April 2020, the decision was based, at least in part, on a public consultation that took place between August and November 2019. Just under half of the UK’s twenty-four million gamblers do so online, with around ten and a half million fitting that brief.

UK Finance believes that around eight hundred thousand of those online gamblers use credit cards to add funds to their betting accounts, whilst the UKGC thinks that about twenty-two percent of those that add funds with credit cards would be classed as problem gamblers. There are even more people on top of that number that are ‘at risk’. It is hoped that the ban will help to reduce those figures, as well as limit the financial trouble people can get in to.

Protecting Consumers

The decision that was taken by the UKGC as well as the Department for Culture, Media and Sport in January was done so with consumers in mind. Neil McArthur, the Chief Executive of the Gambling Commission, said, “This credit card ban will further protect consumers from financial harm and…nobody in Great Britain can use a credit card to gamble. It is a ban which ultimately reduces the risks of harm to consumers from gambling with money they do not have”.

McArthur also feels that the ban is ‘another milestone’ towards keeping people safer when betting online, which has increased in popularity recently. The interest in virtual sports and online slots lately is believed to be linked to people staying at home more, so McArthur is aware of the responsibility on the UKGC and gambling operators to protect bettors as much as possible. He did say he was aware that it would ‘inconvenience’ some people.

McArthur said, “We realise that this change will inconvenience those consumers who use credit cards responsibly but we are satisfied that reducing the risk of harm to other consumers means that action must be taken”. It was an opinion backed up by Helen Whatley, the Culture Minister. She said, “Whilst millions gamble responsibly, I have also met people whose lives have been turned upside down by gambling addiction”.

Why It Matters To Revolut

Revolut has been a good way for gamblers to monitor their spending on account of the fact that it is a pre-paid card. That means that funding has to be added to the card before it can be spent, which is entirely different to credit cards. Credit cards work by extending people credit, hence the name, that needs to be paid off at some point in the future. That’s why it’s far easier for people to get themselves into debt using credit cards when gambling.

The use of Revolut gave people the ability to only spend what they could afford to, not only because they’d need to add the money to the card but also because it gave mobile notifications when something was spent and the card could be frozen. That it will also be affected by the ban on credit cards because Revolut uses Mastercard for the financial side of its business will therefore cause trouble for people who will have been using it to monitor their gambling.

But Doesn’t Revolut Have a Banking Licence?

Revolut is quick to point out that, legally, the business is currently an ‘electronic money institution’. They can handle money and facilitate any business transactions that customers may wish to carry out, but there are certain financial services that the company is unable to offer. Your money is still protected, of course, and any funds entered into an account with them are safeguarded in the same manner as traditional banks, they just aren’t one.

Or at least they’re not yet. In 2018 the company was granted an EU banking licence courtesy of the European Central Bank, but Revolut doesn’t yet have a UK banking licence. When it does, customers may well then be able to start using their Revolut card for the purposes of adding money to a betting account, but without the licence they’re essentially just operating as a credit card. For now, though, you’ll need to use a different card for deposits.

***UPDATE***

The most recent update is that the only bookies we know of accepting Revolut are as follows:

💳 Coral

Here’s confirmation I received from them:

Since it was introduced, the Revolut payment card has spread quickly across the world thanks to its sharp exchange rates for travellers. It is also popular in being used for betting online, and so we’ve run checks on the bookmakers who accept this debit card payment method.

Verified Bookies that Accept(ed) Revolut

Here is a summary of the bookmakers where you could previously use this payment method:

Since then, many have stopped accepting it.

Having had heard and read about some problems with acceptance of the Revolut card with certain bookmakers (notably bet365) we, therefore, decided to investigate. For this article, we fully tested depositing with them and the other main bookies to check the validity and find out where it can actually be used.

The Revolut card comes in either Visa or Mastercard brands, and we used a Visa-branded card for the purposes of making attempted deposits. It shouldn’t really make a difference which is used, as both are accepted virtually everywhere that payment cards can be used.

All deposits and withdrawals were completed or attempted using a mobile phone, although it would make no difference when done from a desktop, too.

Revolut Bookmakers: Sites Where you Can Use the Card

From our own testing, I have verified that Revolut depositing and withdrawal works with the following bookies:

Betfair – This required a pre-authorisation before going through which, at first, made me think that something weird was happening and that my payment wasn’t going to go through.

However, these fears were soon allayed as I came to realise that this was just a standard procedure here (although it isn’t with all bookmakers). In my haste, and after having to go into Revolut to approve the payment, I returned to Betfair, where I accidentally pressed the £50 deposit button even though I had previously only meant to deposit £5.

This therefore also gave me the opportunity to test withdrawals! I then withdrew £45 and it advised me that it would take between 2-3 days to receive this.

Paddy Power – As with Betfair, worked after seeing a pre-authorisation. This was not completely unanticipated considering that both of these brands are part of the same Paddy Power Betfair Group.

Betway – This was another bookie where the deposit worked quickly and easily. In this case, there were no delays and the money was in the account pretty well instantly.

William Hill – Here, it was pretty smooth sailing although there was an initial issue that I needed to call the support line for. After entering the card details (my name, the long number, expiry and the three-digit CVV on the back of the card) I was greeted with the following message:

“Sorry, there is an issue with this request. Please contact Customer Services for assistance, quoting ACC02“.

At first, I assumed that William Hill was not going to be one of the bookies that accepted Revolut. So, I called the customer services line as per the message that was on the screen and spoke to a representative.

After explaining that I’d tried to register a new card, the support person asked if I was using a VPN. I had forgotten that I did have a VPN running for privacy reasons earlier and it was indeed still switched on.

He said that sometimes VPNs make their system think that you might not be in a location where betting is legal and so he requested that I turn off the VPN and try again. It worked immediately after this action was taken, and here you can see the result.

Betfred – Depositing funds at Betfred using Revolut was extremely straightforward. There were no issues at all and everything went through straight away without delay.

Here’s the message received that shows the successful transaction in the Revolut app after I had deposited a tenner using my Revolut Visa card:

Betvictor – One that did not cause any hassle whatsoever. One thing that you might get a little confused about is the fact that on your Revolut statement, the payment shows up as Lottoland (Gibraltar) Ltd rather than Betvictor.

So, now that you realise that it is part of the same group, no panic buttons need to be pressed when you see this message.

Coral – Depositing was completed without any issues at all. There was no pre-authorisation needed and as you can see from the screenshot below, a Revolut message popped up on the screen to advise of the immediate and successful payment at the same time as it did on the Coral mobile site.

Interestingly, no email arrived though – as per what was shown by the on-screen message. However, I didn’t need it thanks to the evidence I’d already received and I certainly didn’t need nor want yet another mail to read, anyway.

Coral also has a decent free bet offer which is fairly popular.

Why Use Revolut for Placing Bets with Bookies?

The preferred money used to bet is without a doubt always going to be what you have in your pocket or bank account. Feeling the need to borrow money to finance gambling generally means that something just isn’t right at all.

This is one of the reasons that lawmakers pushed for the move away from using credit cards for betting in favour of debit cards and, of course, it makes complete sense to have done this despite the inconvenience that it causes to some.

Debit cards are a payment vehicle that only lets the user spend money from funds that they possess in your account. Credit cards, on the other hand, provide the possibility to borrow money from the credit card company (eg MasterCard, Visa, American Express) for free for a short period. Once that period is up, very large rates of interest are normally charged – and it can be easy to fall into a spiral of debt.

This is where the problem lies and why debit cards, like Revolut, are a much-preferred option. In the case of banking with Revolut, it’s not such a simple case of being able to use it anywhere, though.

Past Issues With Using Revolut

Revolut cards will not work in some circumstances. I found this out on a trip to France last year after trying to use mine to pay for petrol I wanted to add to a hire car. The card was rejected at the pump while trying to pre-authorise the transaction.

Fortunately, I also had a credit card on this occasion which had to be used. I later discovered in their terms and conditions that unmanned petrol stations (as this one was) are one of the places that the card will not work.

It’s worth noting that (at the time of writing) that Cryptocurrency exchanges, foreign exchange bureaus and financial securities brokers and dealers are also not supported. Many people like to use Revolut when travelling and for their gambling, so it’s important to know just where it can and can’t be used.

And, if you love this payment method, it may even be a dealbreaker for certain brands. Time to change bookmaker, perhaps?

Bookmakers Where You Can’t Use Revolut

bet365 – We ran into a brick wall when attempting to use one of the world’s largest names.

Unibet – Another international brand bookie where we found that Revolut was not able to be used for making a deposit.

It’s unclear why this is the case, especially in a country where betting online is completely legal and above board. Why would you not be able to use a debit card with a positive balance to make a payment to a merchant of your choice?

It does not seem to make a whole lot of sense, but this is the reality. I’ve read in various forums that loyal Revolut users who have enjoyed the experience of using it for years have become seriously irritated by such issues. So much so that they could even consider changing to an alternative competitor in the payment card space.

The lack of communication about this (i.e. not being informed about it in their terms and conditions) is a factor that Revolut really should consider addressing. This is especially important for their business model if they wish to retain customers who like to use an online bookie in a country where it is completely lawful to so.

It’s not like this is a small section of society, either. In our view, the push to using debit cards means that institutions such as Revolut need to get a better understanding of people’s needs to stay competitive or they will simply lose business.

Tip for Using Revolut with Bookies

During this process, I had forgotten that one thing that I had set up on Revolut’s settings is the “automatic top-up”. This basically tells Revolut to take an amount from your connected bank account every time our Revolut balance falls below a certain amount.

This is sometimes useful when you are travelling internationally and don’t want to get into the situation of running out of money on the card. For example, when you go to pay a restaurant bill and the card gets rejected due to insufficient funds.

In my case, the rule applied was to add £200 every time the balance on the card falls below £50. It was to help avoid the situation just like the restaurant example that I explained above.

So, with this rule still in place (even though I was not travelling in a foreign country with the need for a good exchange rate anymore) I wanted to deposit a tenner into one of the bookmaker accounts.

However, with £55 on the debit card, just depositing £10 had the effect of adding £200 from my bank! Anyhow, it was just a matter of re-adding it back and then taking the necessary steps to remove the automatic top-up rule from the card settings via the Revolut app.

Frequently Asked Questions

💳 Do Any Bookies Accept Revolut?

Betting Sites That Accept Revolut Account

Yes, we have tested it with several bookmakers and there are some that do accept Revolut without any issues.

Betting Sites That Accept Revolut -

💷 What’s a Pre-Authorisation on My Card?

Does Bet365 Accept Revolut

Also known as ‘preauth’, this is a temporary ‘hold’ of a certain amount of your balance which makes sure that there are enough funds available for the bookie to receive the payment.