Credit Cards in Casino

JGUK

Just a quick question tonight as I didn’t know the answer and thought someone here might.

Earlier tonight me and a group of friends popped into a casino and had some drinks. I put one of the rounds on my credit card.

Got me thinking would the card company know the difference between a transaction at the bar as opposed to a gaming transaction?

Bit concerned my card provider might think I’ve used my card for gambling, or is there something I’m missing? 

Cheers!

Fingerbobs

I don't know the answer to your question, but just thought it worth mentioning that it is now illegal for gambling businesses to accept a credit card for a gambling transaction. I don't know what the credit card company would think if it 'saw' an apparent gambling transaction on a credit card.

Ebe_Scrooge

In short, the answer is most likely "it'll be seen as gambling".  Each transaction on your card is tagged with an MCC (Merchant Category Code).  This tells the credit card company what type of establishment it was (supermarket, restaurant, theme park, etc.).  Unless the casino uses a different MCC for its food and its gambling (many/most use just the one code), then it's likely that it would be classed as "gambling".  Not the end of the world as far as it goes, but you may find that it's classed as a cash advance with the associated fees and interest - also, you probably won't earn any points, cashback or whatever if your card normally offers some kind of reward for spending.

An occasional flutter is not, in itself, cause for concern as far as your credit card is concerned, anyway.  As I say, the most annoying part is if you get charged a cash advance fee.  But it does depend entirely on what MCC code was assigned to the transaction.

dcfc67

Surely you will be fine as its illegal for the casino to accept you card for betting purposes.
if you do get hit with a cash advance fee ring your credit card company and tell then it was a drinks purchase.

Migster

I would expect the casino to operate with more than one MCC if required. That said, whenever I've been to a casino (admittedly most of this would be in Vegas rather than the UK) the gambling side of things has been a cash business, in that you'd sit down at a table and hand the croupier notes in exchange for chips, rather than buying chips directly with a card. The casino would have ATMs to get cash from (which have their own specific MCC) so possibly a "gambling" MCC wouldn't be used at all. 

JamieJ89

Migster said:

I would expect the casino to operate with more than one MCC if required. That said, whenever I've been to a casino (admittedly most of this would be in Vegas rather than the UK) the gambling side of things has been a cash business, in that you'd sit down at a table and hand the croupier notes in exchange for chips, rather than buying chips directly with a card. The casino would have ATMs to get cash from (which have their own specific MCC) so possibly a "gambling" MCC wouldn't be used at all. 

Whilst this is true in the main, you can go to the cash desk and get chips using a card transaction, you wouldnt use your card at the table itself.

Sandtree

In the US card companies frequently get vastly more data on the transaction than just MCC and indeed offer lower fees to those merchants that share more detail such as if you book with an airline they will differentiate spend on national, international and non-flight spend.

Whilst data privacy laws are stronger in the UK than the US its a little surprising that its as crude as simply relying on MCC 

JGUK

Thanks never thought about it before and learned something from the replies.

Guess the only way to know the MCC is to ring the card provider / casino and ask them if the bars/restaurants in the casino use a different MCC to the rest of the place!

Thanks for that

s_r

I used to work for a UK casino firm a few years ago and I can confirm that restaurant (hospitality arm) of casinos use different MCC than the gaming floor (where one gambles). Additionally, the casino has to do stringent checks before any credit card can be used for gambling transaction and you have to provide your Driving License and/or passport to be registered first... whereas no such checks exist for restaurants within the casino.

So they are run as two separate entities within the same location.

born_again

JGUK said:

Thanks never thought about it before and learned something from the replies.

Guess the only way to know the MCC is to ring the card provider / casino and ask them if the bars/restaurants in the casino use a different MCC to the rest of the place!

Thanks for that

They will only know when it hits your statement. As MCC are set by retailers merchant bank.

Just let us know if you get any cash advance fee's when the statement shows transaction. Will also help to say which card as well. As not all cards are equal.

WillPS

I regularly (well, 3 or 4 times a year) finish nights out at a Casino late bar, and have never been charged a cash advance fee when using my credit card at the bar.