The list on this page shows you the betting sites which use Revolut, but you can amend the list to show you alternative payment methods available at online sportsbooks in your country. As you can see from reading any of our bookmaker reviews, we only ever recommend legal and fully licensed betting websites. “The new requirements mean that UK gambling companies cannot accept credit cards or payments made through a “money service business” such as Revolut. This applies to all non-remote general betting, pool betting and betting intermediary licences, and all remote licences. Legal Betting Sites in Portugal. If you are asking yourself ‘what betting sites work in Portugal’ and you want to go by the book, there are some specific choices available. Betclic.pt, Bet.pt, Luckia.pt. At the moment revolut payment is not accept yet by online sport bookmakers. Sport bettors need to keep in mind that security for these payment methods are first and foremost. How to Use Skrill payment Method? All online sports betting sites. Revolut Bookmakers: Sites Where you Can Use the Card From our own testing, I have verified that Revolut depositing and withdrawal works with the following bookies: Betfair – This required a pre.

Update 14/04/20: Revolut Stops Accepting Gambling Transactions

According to an email sent on the 14th April 2020, Revolut are no longer able to process any form of gambling transaction. The email quotes a new requirement from the UK Gambling Commission that prohibits betting sites from accepting deposits via credit card or pre paid card:

“The new requirements mean that UK gambling companies cannot accept credit cards or payments made through a “money service business” such as Revolut.”

More can be found here.

Update 16/09/20: Revolut Now Offering Debit Cards

In another twist to the tale, Revolut have started offering full Visa Debit Cards to their customers. The UKGC rules only restrict the use of pre-paid debit cards (and credit cards in general) for gambling purposes so the new cards should work.

We’ve tested this and managed to make a successful deposit into a UK betting site via Revolut, but you will need to order a new debit card first if you’re currently using an old pre-paid number.

Original article dated 13th March 2019

There have been a number of interesting moves in the banking world in recent times around the idea of helping consumers restrict the use of their bank accounts with gambling companies. They’ve generally been seen as a good thing, with Barclays Bank allowing customers to opt out of being able to use their bank account with betting sites which is a great move towards helping for problem gamblers.

On the other end of the spectrum, however, some users have started reporting that digital bank Revolut has been blocking transactions from certain online bookmakers without being asked. This came as a shock to many punters who use a dedicated Revolut account for their betting activities. After all, what good is a bank account if you can’t use it to spend your money how you want.

Spoiler: Thankfully after a bit of digging it appears as though it is down to a simple administrative issue. I’ll get to the nitty gritty of it later in the post.

What Is Revolut?

For those of you that don’t know, Revolut is part of a new breed of banks that only operate online and have no physical presence. You will not be able to go into a branch of the bank on the high street and meet with the manager to discuss your account, for example. Instead, the entire operation is an online enterprise, with banking mainly being done within an app. You can open a current account in minutes, set everything up to operate how you want it to rather than how the bank thinks you should and get a notification every time you make a transaction, reducing the chance of your card being used fraudulently.

I first discovered Revolut personally when I was going abroad and discovered that it offered excellent rates for transactions made on card, meaning that I didn’t need to worry about how much cash I took with me. I’ll confess that I’m yet to take the plunge and move all of my transactions over to the card, instead sticking with my high street bank and just using it for occasional banking needs like holidays. Still, it has emerged as one of the market leaders, along with other similarly positioned online banks like Monzo. Is it the future of banking? I’m not so sure, given that most people still prefer the idea of being able to walk into a branch and deal with real people rather than do everything online.

The Reddit Thread That Has People Worried

Now that we have a better understanding of what Revolut is as a concept it’s worth having a look at where the rumours of the online bank refusing gambling transactions came from. The story emerged, as so many of these stories tend to do, on Reddit thanks to user Bearly_funny. He opened a thread in which he explained that the bank had seemingly ‘discontinued support’ for bookmakers with which he held accounts. He said that the first time he’d found anything out about it was when he received a message from the various bookies saying that they couldn’t make the withdrawals that he’d requested, noting that there was no in-app message from the company itself.

Other uses soon began commenting on the post, with ziggyz2020 making the point that there was information about gambling in the companies terms and conditions. zizp soon replied that that was specifically with reference to illegal gambling, however, and that users were entitled to feel aggrieved about the company changing rules without any notice and without a feeling of transparency for consumers. It’s likely that vlad_shirin got much closer to the likely reasoning behind Revolut’s change in stance, however, when he said that both gambling and cryptocurrency were known to be used by less reputable folk for the purpose of money laundering and that that was what the online bank were likely to be trying to avoid any accusations of enabling.

What Revolut Say On The Matter

Having read the comments on the Reddit thread I thought I’d jump onto my Revolut app and use their help function to speak to one of the advisers and see if the company could shed any light on the issue. I explained the situation to the advisor that came onto my chat, Julia, asking her if Revolut cards could be used for gambling transactions with licensed bookmakers, given the reports that some users had experienced issues.

Julia’s said that, at the time of writing, the only gambling company that Revolut wouldn’t allow payments to was Bet365. She said that incoming payments from the bookmaker were possible, as were withdrawals, but outgoing payments were not. When I asked why she said that merchants tend to be categorised by what is called a Merchant Category Code and are sometimes put under the wrong code, which is what may have happened in the case of Bet365. There was no timescale on when or if that would change.

She also informed me that the following categories are not supported by Revolut:

• Financial security brokers and dealers
• Cryptocurrency exchanges with the exception of Bitstamp, Etoro, Coinbase and Gemini
• Foreign exchange bureaus, including the ATMs of Travelex
• Unmanned petrol stations
• Motorway tolls

As far as Julia was aware, all bookmakers other than Bet365 should be fine when it comes to using Revolut’s card and online banking system.

The General Consensus

This Is Money also looked in the situation, confirming that the company, which launched in 2013, has gone on something of an anti-money laundering drive in recent times that has left a number of users without access to their accounts, regardless of the transaction that they were attempting to make. A user in Spain was unable to pay for their dinner and spent two weeks locked out of his account, for example, with other uses complaining on the company’s Facebook page about being stuck abroad without access to their accounts.

Part of the reason for the blockout is believed to be the fact that the company has expanded so quickly, with more than two and a half million users at the start of 2019 and a suspected total of three million by the end of the year. The concern from some within the industry is that the company has been unable to keep up with the compliance demands set out, requesting some users to supply them with driving licence information, photographs and even bank statements in order to allow the use of the card.

Users Often Use These Cards Just For Gambling

Certainly the one thing that doesn’t seem to be the case is the company specifically blocking the use of the Revolut card for online gambling. Both Julia’s statement to me on the matter and the report by This Is Money seem to suggest that it is a generic compliance issue rather than one specifically linked to online gambling. This will be a relief to many users, with plenty opting for pre-paid cards as their main account for gambling.

There are numerous reasons why this might be the case, with the most obvious being the fact that it allows punters to keep track of their spending. If you can only use the amount of money that is on the card in the first place to make payments then that stops people from going into an unsafe amount of debt. Instead they can simply shift money from their own bank account on to the card, stopping gambling when that money runs out. It’s a safer way to bet, which is why many will be pleased to learn that Revolut aren’t stopping them from doing it and Bearly_funny’s issue was probably more to do with the company’s decision to clamp down on money laundering compliance issues.

Following on from the Gambling Commission’s announcement that credit cards will not be able to be used from the fourteenth of April onwards to make deposits to betting companies, the eBank Revolut has confirmed that this will include their pre-paid cards. It comes in the wake of the UKGC’s review of online gambling as well as the government’s own review into Gaming Machines and Social Responsibility Measures.

Betting Sites That Accept Revolut Debit Cards

Back in March 2019 Revolut customers were caught in confusion when some gambling transactions were being declined. This was due to anti money laundering measures however and separate to this block on credit card use.

Revolut is technically referred to as a ‘money service business’, so falls under the government’s new restrictions that has been put in place on credit card transactions in the world of gambling. It applies to non-remote general betting, pool betting and betting intermediary licences as well as all remote licences. Though the vast majority of people gamble responsibly, some do struggle with managing their finances and it is hoped this will clamp down on that.

Update 16/09/20: Revolut Now Offering Debit Cards Which CAN Be Used For Online Betting

It seems that Revolut have found a way around the rules and, for the time being at least, it is possible to use Revolut for online betting. The issue came from the type of card that Revolut issued – as a pre-paid debit card gambling transactions became restricted when the new UKGC rules came in.

However, it is now possible to order a traditional debit card that is linked to your Revolut account rather than a pre-paid one. This should work the same was as any other debit card so you will be able to continue to use Revolut at the bookies if you order a new debit card.

Note: In our test transaction it initially declined but turned out to be because of a setting blocking online transactions that was automatically applied to the new card, simply enable online transactions and it should work fine.

Why The Ban Is Being Introduced

The United Kingdom Gambling Commission announced that it would be banning the use of credit cards by consumers looking to gamble. Coming into effect on the fourteenth of April 2020, the decision was based, at least in part, on a public consultation that took place between August and November 2019. Just under half of the UK’s twenty-four million gamblers do so online, with around ten and a half million fitting that brief.

UK Finance believes that around eight hundred thousand of those online gamblers use credit cards to add funds to their betting accounts, whilst the UKGC thinks that about twenty-two percent of those that add funds with credit cards would be classed as problem gamblers. There are even more people on top of that number that are ‘at risk’. It is hoped that the ban will help to reduce those figures, as well as limit the financial trouble people can get in to.

Protecting Consumers

The decision that was taken by the UKGC as well as the Department for Culture, Media and Sport in January was done so with consumers in mind. Neil McArthur, the Chief Executive of the Gambling Commission, said, “This credit card ban will further protect consumers from financial harm and…nobody in Great Britain can use a credit card to gamble. It is a ban which ultimately reduces the risks of harm to consumers from gambling with money they do not have”.

McArthur also feels that the ban is ‘another milestone’ towards keeping people safer when betting online, which has increased in popularity recently. The interest in virtual sports and online slots lately is believed to be linked to people staying at home more, so McArthur is aware of the responsibility on the UKGC and gambling operators to protect bettors as much as possible. He did say he was aware that it would ‘inconvenience’ some people.

Betting Sites That Accept Revolut Money

McArthur said, “We realise that this change will inconvenience those consumers who use credit cards responsibly but we are satisfied that reducing the risk of harm to other consumers means that action must be taken”. It was an opinion backed up by Helen Whatley, the Culture Minister. She said, “Whilst millions gamble responsibly, I have also met people whose lives have been turned upside down by gambling addiction”.

Why It Matters To Revolut

Revolut has been a good way for gamblers to monitor their spending on account of the fact that it is a pre-paid card. That means that funding has to be added to the card before it can be spent, which is entirely different to credit cards. Credit cards work by extending people credit, hence the name, that needs to be paid off at some point in the future. That’s why it’s far easier for people to get themselves into debt using credit cards when gambling.

Betting Sites That Accept Revolut Offer

The use of Revolut gave people the ability to only spend what they could afford to, not only because they’d need to add the money to the card but also because it gave mobile notifications when something was spent and the card could be frozen. That it will also be affected by the ban on credit cards because Revolut uses Mastercard for the financial side of its business will therefore cause trouble for people who will have been using it to monitor their gambling.

But Doesn’t Revolut Have a Banking Licence?

Revolut is quick to point out that, legally, the business is currently an ‘electronic money institution’. They can handle money and facilitate any business transactions that customers may wish to carry out, but there are certain financial services that the company is unable to offer. Your money is still protected, of course, and any funds entered into an account with them are safeguarded in the same manner as traditional banks, they just aren’t one.

Betting Sites That Accept Revolut Credit Cards

Or at least they’re not yet. In 2018 the company was granted an EU banking licence courtesy of the European Central Bank, but Revolut doesn’t yet have a UK banking licence. When it does, customers may well then be able to start using their Revolut card for the purposes of adding money to a betting account, but without the licence they’re essentially just operating as a credit card. For now, though, you’ll need to use a different card for deposits.