Payments and cashier

MCC 7995: the gambling code in card payments

MCC 7995 (merchant category code) is the code that card schemes use to mark gambling: casinos, betting, lotteries. It tells the player's bank that the payment is going to gambling, and the bank decides separately whether to let it through or decline it.

Yevhen SychovOctober 2026

What it is

The acquirer assigns this four-digit code under card scheme rules, and it goes to the player's bank with every payment. For banks and schemes, 7995 is a high-risk category: more chargebacks, stricter merchant checks, higher fees and rolling reserves.

How the code affects the approval rate

Some banks do not let gambling through at all, others decline it on credit cards or in countries where the law requires this. Some banks let customers block casino payments themselves in the banking app.

Card approval ceiling = share of cards with no gambling block x approval rate on those cardsFor example, 30% of players pay with cards from banks that do not let code 7995 through, and the other cards go through 85% of the time: the ceiling is 70% x 85% = 59.5%.

Routing between PSPs and payment cascading lift the second factor, but not the first. That is why the approval rate is tracked by bank and card type, and in countries where many banks block the code, bank transfers, e-wallets and local methods are connected in advance.

Why you must not mask the code

Card scheme rules prohibit processing gambling under someone else's code, for example as a sale of digital goods, or through a front merchant. It deceives the player's bank and gets around blocks, including the ones players have set up for themselves. The consequences are fines, closure of the merchant account and refusals from new acquirers.

How to choose a PSP

  • Works with code 7995 openly and confirms this for your gambling licence and countries.
  • Local acquiring in your main countries: banks are more willing to let domestic payments through.
  • Declines by reason: a report by bank, card type and decline code, not just the average approval rate.

Common mistakes

  • Choosing a PSP that promises "a different code". It is the same masking, and the loss of processing will hit the operator, not just the provider.
  • Cascading code-based declines. A bank that does not let gambling through will decline the second provider too. Excess retries cost money, and if the player blocked their card for gambling themselves, getting around the block harms them.
  • Blaming the PSP for bank declines. Without an approval rate breakdown by bank, code blocks look like poor provider performance, and the operator switches PSP when the cause is the bank.
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