Doug,
They can not stop check or bankwires. It is impossible. Billions of checks and wires occur each year and they are not coded. If a bank ever doesn't like you just get a new bank - there are hundreds.
Stopping credit cards is easy. The problem is this - to accept credit cards, a company needs a merchant account. The merchant account processes the card, forwards you the money, and collects from Visa/MC/Amex, etc. The merchant account takes on risk. If there is a charge back, the merchant account pays back the user and then debits it from the company. If the company runs out of money the merchant account is on the hook.
Therefore, when a business opens a merchant account, it or its owner's credit is checked. Usually new businesses have to keep 10-20% of the credit card purchases on hold for weeks or months to lower merchant account risk. Also a new business without business history is only going to be able to process small amounts ($50-100k/month).
If a business wants to process a lot more, the merchant account will ask for more info. It is very hard to say you rent movies, have no business history, and need a merchant account with $5,000,000 in allowable bills/month.
This presents the problem to the sportsbook.
Either they get a ton of small merchant accounts and move them around when they get caught (Big pain as money is sure to get tied up/frozen)
They tell the merchant they do gambling, get a nice limit, and then can not serve the US.
Checks and Wires are impossible to track as you don't need a US facing bank/merchant account to cash them.
They can not stop check or bankwires. It is impossible. Billions of checks and wires occur each year and they are not coded. If a bank ever doesn't like you just get a new bank - there are hundreds.
Stopping credit cards is easy. The problem is this - to accept credit cards, a company needs a merchant account. The merchant account processes the card, forwards you the money, and collects from Visa/MC/Amex, etc. The merchant account takes on risk. If there is a charge back, the merchant account pays back the user and then debits it from the company. If the company runs out of money the merchant account is on the hook.
Therefore, when a business opens a merchant account, it or its owner's credit is checked. Usually new businesses have to keep 10-20% of the credit card purchases on hold for weeks or months to lower merchant account risk. Also a new business without business history is only going to be able to process small amounts ($50-100k/month).
If a business wants to process a lot more, the merchant account will ask for more info. It is very hard to say you rent movies, have no business history, and need a merchant account with $5,000,000 in allowable bills/month.
This presents the problem to the sportsbook.
Either they get a ton of small merchant accounts and move them around when they get caught (Big pain as money is sure to get tied up/frozen)
They tell the merchant they do gambling, get a nice limit, and then can not serve the US.
Checks and Wires are impossible to track as you don't need a US facing bank/merchant account to cash them.
