Introduction:  

Mastercard Worldwide is an American based financial services company that has been around for over 50 years. The company was founded in 1966 and initially known as the Interbank Card Association and was later changed to Mastercard in 1979. The company has its headquarters in New York and is tied up with thousands of banks and financial institutions from around the world.

Banks and financial companies across the globe issue a number of different Mastercard debit and credit cards to their customers. These cards are broken down in different categories based on the individual’s credit score, savings, credit limit and purpose of using these Mastercard’s.

Benefits

✓  Widely Accepted: Most online casinos which are licensed and regulated tend to provide players with an opportunity to make deposits using a bank card. Since Mastercard is one of the most popular financial card providers, the majority of online casinos have no problem in processing Mastercard payments and usually display the Mastercard logo on the payment processing page, so that players know that the online casino accepts Mastercards.

✓  Security: Mastercard is constantly upgrading its technology and security to ensure that its financial information is protected at all times. Most licensed and regulated online casinos use the latest encryption technologies to ensure that their player’s personal and financial information is kept safe at all times. One of the reasons why online casinos are ready to work with Mastercard is because they know that the brand has a strong financial reputation in the global market and that the security protocols they follow are right up there with the best in the world.

✓  Reward Points: Banks and financial institutions which issue debit and credit MasterCard’s often provide their customers with numerous benefits that usually come in the form of reward points. So if a Mastercard holder processes 3 financial transactions at an online casino in a particular month, the bank looks at the amount spent and then allocates a certain number of reward points. These reward points can later be redeemed as cash, used as air miles or cashed out for gift coupons depending on the policies of the particular bank or financial institution.

Concerns

✓  Swipe Fees:  There have been concerns expressed in the past by Mastercard holders that they were being charged excess swipe debit card fees by Mastercard. A lawsuit was filed against Mastercard and Visa in the past for billions of dollars in the 1990s and in the end Mastercard and Visa had to pay a significant amount of money to settle the lawsuit. Players will do well to check their Mastercard bank statements at the end of the month to see if there are any hidden charges being included in the bill.

✓  High Charges For European Tourists:  There have been occasions in the past when Mastercard has reportedly charged European tourists a higher processing fee than Mastercard holders who were residents in Europe. So if you are visiting Europe and thinking about using your Mastercard at an online casino in Europe, do double check to ensure that you are not being charged excessively.

Summary

Mastercard is one of the leading financial services firms that provide debit and credit card services to banks and financial institutions around the world.