How to improve payment approval rates
In gambling, card deposit approval rates in many markets lag behind other e-commerce sectors. Part of the reason is that issuing banks treat merchant category code 7995 as higher risk; part is that cashier set-ups rarely follow how players actually pay. The good news: most of the causes can be measured and managed.
1. Sort your declines
The first step is not a new provider but tidy data. Split declines into at least four groups:
- Issuer (soft) declines – for example “do not honour”, triggered by a bank’s risk rule; some of these succeed with a proper retry or a different route.
- Hard declines – expired or blocked cards, insufficient funds; these must not be retried automatically.
- Authentication failures – the 3-D Secure flow is abandoned or fails.
- Declines by your own rules – fraud prevention or responsible gambling rules stop the transaction. This is intentional and should not be reduced at the expense of effectiveness.
If providers use different code systems, a shared mapping table makes them comparable. Without it, reports stay apples and oranges.
2. Routing and a fallback route
With several acquiring partners, routing by card type, issuing country and amount can make a real difference. Retrying on a second route after an issuer decline is only justified when the code allows it and card scheme rules do not prohibit resubmission. Over-aggressive retries cost fees and trust.
3. Authentication as a conversion step
Strong customer authentication is mandatory in the European Economic Area. The question is not whether to have it, but how smooth it is. Check how many players drop out when switching to their banking app on mobile, and whether your provider passes the data the issuer needs for authentication.
4. Local payment methods
In many markets players mainly pay by instant bank transfer, e-wallet or a local payment scheme. If your cashier offers only cards, the more effective step is often to add the familiar method rather than to squeeze card approvals. It can speed up withdrawals too.
5. The cashier as a product
Most abandonments happen on the cashier screen, not at the bank: long forms, unclear error messages, hidden methods. A simple funnel – cashier opened, method selected, details entered, authentication, successful deposit – shows where to intervene first.
What to watch every week
Approval rate by method, country and provider; first-deposit success separately from returning players; authentication drop-off; and the chargeback ratio. The last one matters because higher approval must never come at the expense of fraud prevention.
If you would like us to review your own cashier funnel and decline data, write to us – on the first call we will tell you what data we need.