Please read the following carefully
Depending on the type of business (gaming, competitions,
skilled etc) depends on whether we can offer you an
account. In general, skill games do not require a licence,
while chance games (gambling) do. Unfortunately we can
not help unlicenced gambling & betting businesses.
If you are uncertain of the licensing requirement,
and you are based in the UK, then you may want to contact
the Gambling Commission for advice. Even though we will
accept their determination we will need proof from them
such as a copy of the confirmation letter.
Please click on one of the options below:
Blocked Countries
Please note that the bank we use for setting up gaming
accounts does not allow the following countries to participate
in gaming. This is not the country that YOU the merchant
comes from, but the country YOUR CUSTOMER comes from.
e.g. if someone living in China tried to enter your
competition they would be blocked. However someone from
the UK would be allowed.
Full risk assessment
Due to an applicants status and/or business model and
following a full risk assessment of an application,
we are unfortunately sometimes required to increase
two specific elements: the settlement period and the
rolling reserve, in order to increase the merchant's
chance of obtaining a merchant facility with one of
our sponsor banks. Indeed a longer settlement period
and a larger rolling reserve are more likely to reassure
our processing bank that we have taken sufficient steps
to mitigate the risk exposure on an account.
Note on unique bidding / reverse auctions
Even though there is some debate whether or not lowest
unique bidding is skill or guess work, our strict policy
is that this type of business is classed as gambling
(chance) rather than competition (skill).
THAT SAID, if the gambling commission does not view
your business as gambling but competition, then we may
be able to help. If the gambling commission does state
that it is gambling, then a licence would be needed
for us to help.
Skilled based businesses
Do you need to spot the ball or answer a number of
questions* to possibly win? If so then we may be able
to help by offering you the Merchant Account
+ Gateway.
To consider your application, YOU MUST COMPLY
with the following conditions.
- You must inform us of what
the prize(s) are and must also prove that they have
either ownership of said prize(s) or have sufficient
funds at time off application to allow you to purchase
said prizes.
- Details of the Auditors who
will oversee and verify the legitimacy of the prize
draw.
- Please note that 100% remittances
of transactions to you will only occur after the prize
has been awarded and has been verified and confirmed
in writing by the Auditors.
Please also note:
- Depending on the business
classification established by Visa & MasterCard,
our Processing Bank may require that you register
as a High Risk Merchant (gaming/gambling/adult material)
at the cost of $1500 annually.
- Provision of the Bank AML
(Anti Money Laundering) document completed, signed
and stamped by a Solicitor - this will be supplied
to you in the application (annex B)
Want
to know more?
For much more information on the Optimal
Account please use the following links;
We
have designed the application process to be as simple
as possible. with 95% of all applications being
accepted.
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With
our accounts we provide as standard:
- Address Verification
(AVS)
- Card Verification
- Customer Relations
Management (CRM)
- Acquisition &
Settlement Currencies
- Deferred Processing
(pre-auth)
- Enterprise Resource
Planning (ERP)
- Interactive Voice
Response (IVR)
- Internet Merchant
Account
- Mail Order/Telephone
Order
- Real-time transactions
- Repeat Billing
- Security Code Verification
- User Authentication
- Verified by Visa
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* Over recent months the banks we use have been getting
strict on the types of questions you can ask. Before
you could ask a simple question such as 'what's white
and falls out of the sky in winter?'. However you now
need to ask a question which 50% of people could
get wrong. For example 'What precipitation falls from
clouds in the form of ice crystals?' - 50% may say snow
while 50% may say hailstones - snow being the right
answer!
Please
note that due to certain 'Adult' businesses e.g downloadable
videos and photos (NOT physical hard goods), needing
a different kind of merchant account, they are subject
to additional “High Risk Registration Fees”
from VISA ($500 per year) and MasterCard ($1000 per
year). We would like to make it clear that this
is not an extra charge incurred by us.
Wish to take micro payments i.e. £1.00
or less?
Unfortunately we are no longer able to provide accounts
for merchants wishing to accept payments of £1.00
or less (micro payments). In fact, the banks are starting
to only allow payments of £5.00 or more. This
is one reason why companies such as the National Lottery
will now only allow you to add £5.00 or more to
your account or force you to set-up a monthly direct
debit. |