why we can't use credit cards to deposit...blame dumbass degenerate gamblers

Online gamblers sue their creditors
A California couple that lost more than $100,000 by gambling online sues a host of credit card companies and banks, claiming the businesses shouldn't have processed their wagers.

A California couple that lost more than $100,000 gambling online is suing a host of credit card companies and banks, claiming the businesses shouldn't have processed the wagers.
Lisa and Andrew Harding racked up tens of thousands of dollars in online gambling debt during 2002 and 2003, prompting a lawsuit from credit card company Retailers National Bank, which accused Lisa Harding of failing to pay the bills. Last week, the pair filed a countersuit against several credit card companies, including Visa International and its USA division, MasterCard International and Discover Financial Services. They also sued banks that issued the cards, including Retailers National Bank and Citibank, and companies they said electronically transferred funds for some of their bets, including Western Union Holdings.

The countersuit, filed in Superior Court in Alameda County, Calif., claims that the companies ran afoul of California's unfair business practices act by processing the gambling transactions and violated a state prohibition against providing credit for gambling. The suit also claims the companies violated the USA Patriot Act, which prohibits illegal money transmissions.

"We brought this so this will not happen to anybody else, so companies will stop making money off of illegal gambling loans in California," said Ira Rothken, an attorney of the Hardings.

Many major credit card companies have policies of not doing business with any sites they know offer online wagering. Rothken said it's up to the companies to enforce those policies--something he said they didn't do in this case. "Evidently, there are bugs in their system," Rothken said.

Paul Klemm, an attorney who's representing Retailers National Bank, said he hadn't received the cross-complaint and wouldn't comment on the case.

The countersuit is seeking to relieve the Hardings of their debt. If it succeeds, it wouldn't be the first suit to put a dent in an online gambler's liability to a credit card company. In two similar suits also brought by Rothken, both Discover Card and Visa agreed to relieve some portion of the charges that online gamblers had rung up.

Online gambling payment has also become a hot topic among federal lawmakers. Two weeks ago, a Senate committee approved a bill that would make credit card payments to gambling sites illegal. The House passed a similar bill in June.



By Lisa M. Bowman, Staff Writer, CNET News.com

CNET

Guess you could call this couple "sore losers"!

Personally I never use my credit card unless absolutely necessary, I spend what I can afford to spend, you guessed it, my dad was a financial analyst.

Amen Eric.

I pay my balance in full EVERY month ... I wouldn't use it at all, but I like the rewards point

My motto is - if I couldn't pay for it in cash, then I can't afford to charge it

This is sooooo funny right now. Remember when online wagering first started and we all used our credit cards (or at least most of us did). Most of us also are responsible folks as well. Didn't matter one little bit to the credit card companies as they gradually stopped ALL transactions anyway, without ANY law. Now, (the funny part) the government is about to stop all means of paying). Of course, we hope it does not happen, but isn't it amazing how these stories allways seem to come out just before ......

I wonder how that couple would have felt if they had won and the book told them " We can not pay you because you used a credit card to fund the account and that is as you know illegal , would have loved to see there faces then.

Then you'd have a number of threads like " Book ABC is stiffing me " and chit like that