Question of the Day - 14 February 2020

In New Jersey brick-and-mortar casinos, you can't play slots with a credit card. You can't play anything with a credit card. 

In New Jersey's online casinos, however, you can play slots with a credit card. But no, your winnings can't be loaded back onto the card. You have to collect in the usual fashion, generally by having an e-check deposited into your bank account. 

Putting money into your New Jersey gaming account via a credit card is a new development in online gambling in the U.S., which has come to pass only in the past few months. One of the biggest challenges with online gaming in New Jersey has been depositing money to play. With conventional credit cards and payment processors, trying to do so often failed. But now, the options are starting to evolve. 

Last October, American Express started allowing Caesars online gambling customers in New Jersey to deposit funds using their cards, a worldwide first for AMEX.

Sugarhouse Online Casino is collaborating with payment-provider Wyrz to allow customers to deposit money into their online accounts with almost all of their credit cards.

And in Vegas, the D is using "a new automated cashless gaming system, ACS PlayOn," at all of its table games. It's a small debit-card reader from which you can buy chips, bypassing the cage and/or casino ATMs. The fee is roughly the same as at an ATM: a flat $4, plus 2.5% of your withdrawal amount. And no, you can't use a credit card, debit only, and only up to the amount of your daily limit. The ACS PlayOn was tested at Red Rock in March 2019, then rolled out at the Palms last month. It will also be available at the Golden Gate soon. 

As usual, the casinos are making it easier to put money in. Getting it back remains a bit more of a challenge.