Effective Tuesday, March 11th, a change will be implemented to the EFT authorization process to hold authorizations for online gambling transactions for $.01 – $1. Currently, holds under $1 are ignored due to time constraints on the amount of time those funds can be held (such as fuel authorizations). However, online gambling transactions do not have specific time constraints.
In order to secure funds for only the online gambling transactions, a new Merchant Category Group, ISOHIRISK was added, with three MCC codes for Digital Goods: Games (5816), Video Game Establishments (7994), and Betting (7995).
When a gambling transaction with the appropriate code is received, the funds will be held in Misc Secured Holds and will follow usual procedure where if a member goes negative, future authorizations will be denied.
You do not have to take any action for this change, but we want you to be aware of the small amount secured holds that will begin to appear for gambling transactions. Note that you do not have to participate in any Merchant Category Code programs for this change.
If you have any questions, please contact the Cards & Payments team.
