Online Gambling (iGaming)

Online gambling, often called iGaming in the industry, is the staking of money on games of chance or on the outcome of events through websites and mobile apps. The main products are online casinos (slots, table games and live-dealer games), sports betting, poker, bingo and online lotteries. Players deposit funds into an account held by the operator, place bets, and withdraw any winnings back to a bank account, card or wallet.

Online gambling is legal and licensed in some countries, banned in others, and tolerated or unregulated in many. Because a website can be reached from anywhere, the central regulatory question is not where the operator sits but where the player is. That tension shapes the industry's licensing, its payment arrangements and its reputation with banks. The term iGaming is not related to video gaming, although the two overlap in areas such as esports betting.

An online casino or bookmaker works like a cloakroom with a game attached. You hand over money at the counter, receive a ticket showing your balance, play or bet using that ticket, and collect what is left when you leave. Behind the counter sit a bank or payment company handling the cash and a software firm running the games.

The complication is that the counter is open to the whole world at once. A town may welcome the cloakroom, require it to hold the town's own permit, or forbid it outright. The operator has to decide which towns it serves, and the banks handling its money have to be sure it is not taking coats from places where that is not allowed.

The industry has a layered supply chain:

• Operators. These business-to-consumer brands hold the player relationship and the player balances, and are the companies that need a gambling licence.
• Suppliers. Game studios, sportsbook platforms, odds feeds and live-casino studios provide content, often under separate business-to-business licences.
• Affiliates. Marketing partners send traffic to operators in return for commission, a model that regulators increasingly hold operators responsible for, much like an affiliate in financial services.
• Payment firms. Banks, acquirers, e-wallets and payment service providers move deposits and withdrawals.

Two licensing models coexist. In the point-of-consumption model, used by Great Britain, most of the EU, the United States and Brazil, an operator needs a licence in each market it serves. In the hub model, an operator holds one licence from a jurisdiction such as Curaçao and serves players in many countries, an approach associated with the offshore gaming license.

Regulation differs sharply between jurisdictions:

• Great Britain. The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) licenses all operators serving British consumers and sets rules on age checks, affordability and advertising.
• European Union. Gambling is not harmonised; each member state runs its own regime, and EU case law allows national restrictions. The Malta Gaming Authority (MGA) hosts many operators that hold other national licences too.
• United States. The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 requires payment systems to block restricted gambling transactions. Since a 2018 Supreme Court ruling, sports betting has spread state by state, while online casinos are legal in only a minority of states.
• Brazil. A 2023 law created a licensed fixed-odds market that opened in January 2025, with deposits tied to the player's CPF taxpayer number. In September 2026 a presidential provisional measure prohibited fixed-odds betting and online casino nationwide, pending review by Congress and challenges in the courts.

Offshore regulators such as the Curaçao Gaming Authority (CGA) license operators that often serve countries where they hold no local licence. Those countries respond with geo-blocking orders, advertising bans and payment blocking.

Holding and moving player money is a payments activity in its own right. Card transactions for gambling carry a dedicated merchant category code (MCC), and card schemes require acquirers to register and monitor gambling merchants, so many banks treat operators as a high-risk merchant class. Common deposit methods include debit cards, e-wallets, bank transfers, local instant payment schemes such as PIX in Brazil, prepaid vouchers and, at offshore sites, cryptocurrency. Specialist regimes and providers are covered under gaming payments and gaming payment licenses.

The FATF standards treat casinos, including internet casinos, as businesses that must apply anti-money laundering (AML) controls, and EU law extends AML duties to providers of gambling services. Typical risks are deposits made and withdrawn with little play, third-party funding through mule accounts, collusion between players, and stolen cards. Operators answer with know your customer (KYC) checks, source of funds reviews for heavy spenders and transaction monitoring.

Public health bodies link online gambling to addiction, debt and mental-health harm, because play is continuous, private and available at all hours. Regulators respond with deposit limits, self-exclusion schemes, stake limits and advertising restrictions. A second set of risks is commercial: licences can be withdrawn, markets can close quickly, and banks can exit a whole segment through de-risking. When licensed channels shrink, demand often moves to unlicensed sites paid through crypto, agents and informal channels, feeding the grey economy rather than disappearing.

• Gambling Commission (Great Britain)
• Federal Reserve: Regulation GG (Unlawful Internet Gambling)