Visa
Review
The statement “we connect consumers, businesses, banks and governments in more than 200 countries and territories worldwide” is not just an empty phrase when we talk about Visa, the world-leading financial provider for card payment solutions. Visa cards can be used virtually in any country on this planet to pay for goods and services or withdraw cash at an ATM. Founded in 1958 as BankAmericard, the company employs today some 20,000 people worldwide and has a revenue of over $20 billion.
Unknown to many, BankAmericard was founded by the Bank of America to counter its competitor called at the time Master Charge (today’s MasterCard). It took them less than a decade to offer the credit card concept to other financial institutions and by 1976 it adopted the name Visa after multiple participating banks created a consortium to turn the financial services into a global provider.
All transactions are handled via the company’s own VisaNet with four central data centres located in Virginia, Colorado, London UK and Singapore. Heavily secured and operating independently from each other they can handle a staggering up to 30,000 transactions and 100 billion computations every second.
As of 2019, Visa the world’s second-largest card payment organization, based on the annual value of card payments transacted and the number of issued cards. They were surpassed in 2015 by China’s UnionPay.
Unsurprisingly and perhaps even expected, Visa debit/credit and prepaid cards were one of the very first payment methods accepted at online casinos and bookmakers. It is still as popular today although some countries such as the UK (from 14th April 2020 onwards) started restricting the use of credit cards for casino deposits with the aim to protect vulnerable players from overspending. However, debit and prepaid cards are still fine.
Making a deposit with a Visa card is as simple as it gets. Choose the card as your payment method, enter the 16-digit number, name and CVV number followed by the amount before hitting submit. Withdrawals from casinos can also be paid back to Visa cards, making it a perfect allrounder for gaming and sports betting. Online casinos will ask for a copy of the front and back (cover the 8 middle digits) to prove that the card is indeed yours. Usually, they offer an upload facility which you can use to securely transmit the file.