Amex and online (live) casinos

Live casinos accepting American Express as a deposit option are as rare as hens teeth…and with good reason.

For one, Amex although very much a global brand, still enjoys far higher market penetration within the US than globally. According to CreditCard.com,  it holds the leading share of the US credit card market based on purchase volume – 23.46%.  This compares with only 10% of the global market based on purchase volume.

If you combine this statistic with the fact that  the vast majority of live casinos presently don’t accept US players (there are a couple of exceptions of course), the adoption (or lack thereof) of Amex as a deposit option  amongst the major players makes some sense.

But 10% of global market is still pretty high I hear you say.  There would be far more American Express card holders than customers of Moneybookers, NeTeller, Ukash or any of the other virtual wallet services offered by European and Asian based online gambling operators.

That leads us to the next, and probably principle reason it’s a deposit option that most operators are reluctant to adopt it…high merchant service fees.

Amex is, and has always been a card aimed at the higher end of the consumer market – and this isn’t just corporate rhetoric, but a fact illustrated by the stats. While more money is spent in the US using Amex than any other credit card, there are only 48.9 million of the cards in circulation, compared with 270 million Visa cards and 203 million MasterCards (at end 2009).

It is also packaged as a more complete service offering with all kind of ancillary benefits that come with membership.  And again this is reflected by the fact that it enjoys pride of place at the top of major customer satisfaction surveys.

But merchants pay a steep price for accessing the big spending Amex customers with merchant services fees that are significantly higher than those charged by Visa, Mastercard and other credit and debit cards.  For gambling operators, many of whom operate on small margins (ie fixed odds sports betting operators in particular) these high fees become a little prohibitive.

The exception to the rule

Live casinos accepting Amex include BetPhoenix (also accepts US players) and Royal Vegas (no US players).

For a more complete discussion of deposition options, visit our casino banking page