Why You Should Never Use Credit to Gamble

Thanks to the introduction of schemes like PayPal credit and the fact that many real money online casinos now let your despot and withdrawal using credit cards, it’s more common than ever to use credit you don’t have. The disadvantages of using money that is not yours to gamble with should be obvious, but this is becoming an increasingly common option and countless gamblers are only realizing the damage that is being done when it is too late.

The Cost

It costs money to use a credit cards to gamble. Not all sites will charge you for the deposit and most will actually allow you to do it for free. However, your credit card company will charge you for a cash transaction, because that’s what it gets recorded as. There are no reward points from such transactions and you will spend a minimum of £2.50 per transaction for most cards.

This means that a £10 bet will actually cost you £12.50. And if the casino is charging 1% to 3% for the deposit, as well as a withdrawal fee, then you could be losing much more than that. You will also need to pay interest on that money and on the fees, which means that even a small bet could add up. In fact, if you deposit £5, turn it into £10 and then withdraw it, then you may actually lose money in the long run.

Illusion of Wealth

If the money is not in our hands, then it doesn’t feel as real and it becomes easier to spend on frivolous things. If the money is not even in our bank and is technically not ours—which is technically the case with credit—then it becomes even easier to spend.

If you apply this to gambling then you have a situation where someone who would gamble £10 in a bookmakers and £20 online through their bank account, is now gambling in excess of £30 or even more using credit. They bet with more not only because it doesn’t feel like it is their money, but because they don’t want to use their credit card for small transactions and they want to win enough money back to cover their sake as well as the fees that it will accrue.

And if you are gambling more than usual then you have just taken the first step towards problem gambling.

Illusion of Success

We all like to think that we can win money when we want to and that we know more about a particular sport than we actually do. At the time we place a bet we’re usually fairly confident that we can win and if we’re betting with credit cards, this can cause problems. It can lead to higher than normal deposits and the biggest risk of all is when we try to win that money back.

After all, we’re gambling with money we don’t have and we will do everything we can to avoid owing that money. This might mean betting more and more to win it back, and if we keep losing then before long we’re in a massive hole financially.

Be Careful

You can carefully use credit to gamble on sports books and real money online casinos. But you need to play it safe. Make sure you use sites such as Bet365 that don’t charge fees and process quickly. Make sure you seek out the best bonus beforehand to try and get some free cash in exchange for your risk and whatever you do, don’t bet more than you would usually and don’t chase those losses.