Playing at an unlicensed online casino is always risky – and sadly, getting your funds back is usually very difficult. We at Player Protection Legal have seen many players fall into this trap and then wonder if a chargeback or legal claim can recover their losses. The short answer is: almost never automatically. UK gambling law and card-payment rules offer very little protection when a casino has no UK licence. In fact, the Gambling Commission warns that illegal casinos “pose a risk to consumers, especially the vulnerable” and are “unlikely to operate in a way that is fair or safe”. In practice, betting with an unlicensed operator means you give up most of your consumer protections – you’re outside the UK’s regulated system. The Commission explicitly notes that when players use illegal gambling sites, they “expose themselves to risks and are not afforded the protections required in the regulated sector”. This is not scaremongering; without a licence, there’s no watchdog to enforce fair play, prompt payouts, or responsible game practices. In short, your usual player rights vanish the moment you bet with an offshore rogue site.
Why chargebacks almost never work for gambling losses
When a UK player loses money, the instinct is often to dispute the bank payment. Card chargebacks let you ask your bank or card issuer to reverse a payment if something went wrong. However, it’s crucial to understand that chargebacks are not a legal entitlement, just a voluntary dispute process under the Visa/Mastercard rules. These rules specifically restrict gambling cases. In one recent UK case, a customer asked Revolut to charge back payments to a foreign casino. Revolut refused, pointing out that “the rules… set out there was no recourse to reclaim gambling transactions”. The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) agreed: the chargeback scheme doesn’t give the cardholder any legal right to recover bets. In fact, Mastercard and Visa explicitly prohibit general chargebacks on gambling. In a 2024 complaint very similar to this, Mastercard told the Ombudsman that “there are no chargeback rights for any sort of gambling transaction”. In other words, Visa/Mastercard will not rescue you simply because you bet on an illegal site.
Some players hope to use a technicality: maybe the casino mis-coded its merchant category (MCC) to bypass the bank’s gambling block. Visa has a rule (12.7) for this, but it’s almost impossible to use successfully. The Ombudsman explained that to use an MCC-code chargeback, you’d have to meet all of these tough requirements:
- Prove the merchant used the wrong code. (Not easy, since merchants can have legitimate reasons to use various codes.)
- Show that if the “correct” code had been used, your bank’s gambling filter would have blocked the payment. (You’d typically need evidence of other transactions being blocked under that code.)
- Demonstrate that each charge was actually the hidden gambling purchase you claim, not something else. (Essentially proving the transaction was fraudulently represented.)
Meeting those conditions is “an extremely difficult thing to prove” in practice. The Ombudsman noted that without detailed proof (for example, logs showing your block rule catching other transactions), a bank cannot process the dispute. In the case above, despite the customer’s insistence, the Ombudsman upheld Revolut’s refusal. As he put it, Revolut was not wrong to refuse because the customer “would not have been able to meet the evidential requirements”. Ultimately, the Ombudsman concluded the customer had “no recourse… using the chargeback process”.
To sum up: the card schemes offer no special “unlicensed casino chargeback” exception. You’re effectively asking a bank to unwind an authorised gambling payment – and Visa/Mastercard rules just won’t let that happen. We often say it bluntly: if the payment was an authorised bet, the banks usually will not reverse it. MasterCard’s own representative confirmed that even their “transaction laundering” rule (intended for code-misuse cases) would not apply here. The only chargeback avenue is in extreme fraud cases – for example, if the casino stole your funds after you won (see below) – but for the run-of-the-mill unlicensed casino loss, chargeback is essentially off the table.
UK law and recent rulings: what the Ombudsman says
Because gambling losses at illegal sites fall outside standard consumer law, many players look for other UK legal remedies. Unfortunately, these are very limited too. By law, the UK Gambling Commission only regulates operators with a licence. Any casino outside the UK and without permission is essentially beyond its jurisdiction. The FOS decision quoted above noted that an unlicensed, offshore casino gave “little to no genuine protection” to the consumer. In other words, UK gambling law doesn’t step in to refund you in this situation.
A key point from the recent July 2025 case is that no clause in the chargeback rules covers an unlicensed operator. The Ombudsman explicitly stated he was “not aware of any chargeback condition relating to the license of the gambling operator” that could help reclaim money. There simply isn’t a card-dispute code that triggers just because the casino had no UK licence. This aligns with the Gambling Act’s approach: the Act treats gambling contracts as enforceable law, but that generally means a winning bet can be sued for within the context of a lawful framework. When a site isn’t licensed, you’re left with very few official options.
This is why the FOS left the customer empty-handed. In his final decision, Ombudsman Daniel Picken wrote: “for the reasons I’ve set out… I’m currently minded to say that there was no recourse for Mr F to reclaim the money he paid…using the chargeback process.”. In plain terms, even with a UK debit card, betting on an illegal site, then asking for a refund, the ombudsman said it simply doesn’t fit the rules. (His provisional decision noted Revolut had no duty to block the payments in the first place, because the transactions were “authorised” by the customer.)
One must also remember: reporting an unlicensed casino to the Gambling Commission or Action Fraud might help get the site shut down, but it won’t put money back in your account. The Commission’s work against illegal gambling focuses on site takedowns and blocking payments, not individual refunds. So in the end, UK law basically leaves you on your own for recovery. The only real silver lining is that if there was outright fraud, you may have other claims (see next section), but otherwise, lose money at an illegal casino, and you’re likely stuck with the loss.
Other recovery routes (and their limits)
If the standard chargeback route fails, are there any other legal tools? The two often-cited ones are: Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974, and small claims / civil proceedings.
Section 75 (credit cards): This can cover credit-card purchases of £100–£30,000 if the supplier breaches the contract or misrepresents the transaction. In gambling terms, Section 75 cannot give you back lost bets – but it might come into play if the casino refuses to honour a legitimate win or refund a balance. As our own guide explains, “Section 75 does not cover gambling losses, but it may apply when a casino fails to pay out legitimate winnings or unlawfully withholds a player’s balance.”. In practice, this means: if you used a UK credit card and you have documented winnings that the casino promised to pay but won’t, you could press a Section 75 claim for that amount. For example, one case study on our site describes a player who deposited £500 on an offshore casino, won £5,000, and then had the casino vanish with his withdrawal request. After applying Section 75, Barclaycard refunded the full £5,000 – because the customer showed a clear breach of contract. This was a rare success: a legitimate withdrawal was turned into a credit-card breach-of-contract claim. If your scenario is just “I lost £X gambling,” Section 75 won’t help. It only helps if the casino defaulted on paying out money it owed you.
Debit cards and bank transfers: There is no Section 75 for debit cards. Your only regulated remedy would be the voluntary chargeback (as discussed above), which will almost always be declined for gambling. Some people have tried disputing under the Payment Services Regulations (PSR) – for instance, claiming the payment was unauthorised or the bank owed a duty to intervene. However, if you authorised the transaction (you knowingly bet), it won’t count as “unauthorised” under PSR. (PSR covers fraud or error, not a bad bet.) In short, unless your card was hacked or used without permission, PSR won’t get you money back.
Civil claims: You could theoretically sue the casino for breach of contract or for fraud in a civil court. The problem is jurisdiction and enforceability. Most unlicensed casinos are offshore entities or hide behind layers of licensees. Taking them to court usually means identifying the legal entity, serving papers in a foreign country, and trying to collect any judgment – all expensive and unlikely. Even if you manage to sue a UK-based agent or payment processor, those often have tiny assets or come with arbitration clauses. Also note: the Gambling Act 2005 says gambling contracts are generally enforceable, but that mostly protects punters who win bets at legal gambling companies. For an illegal site, a court might see your entire contract as tainted. In practice, we seldom pursue this route because it rarely succeeds and can leave you with legal bills bigger than your loss.
Regulator complaints: If by some chance the casino claimed to have a license (e.g. Malta, Gibraltar) but you suspect it was bogus, you might contact that jurisdiction’s regulator. However, overseas regulators usually won’t entertain individual British customers. And the UK Gambling Commission will say, “we have no authority over this operator.” So this almost never gives you a refund.
The blunt reality: if chargebacks and Section 75 are out, legal options are extremely limited. You might be able to report the scam, but that’s for law enforcement, not a quick refund. As the Ombudsman indicated, the system is simply not set up to protect bettors against unlicensed operators.
How we can help (when there’s even a sliver of hope)
At Player Protection Legal, we’ve built our practice around exactly these hard cases – we even say we’ve been “defending players’ rights against unfair online casinos” since 2010. Our job is to examine every payment and every piece of evidence and see if any angle can be used. We also believe in frank, first-person advice: we won’t promise miracles, but we will pursue any valid claim on your behalf. Here’s what we do:
- Carefully review your case: We analyse bank statements, game histories, and communications to identify any breach of contract or compliance failure by the casino (or the bank). For example, if a casino locked your account after a win, that’s evidence of a breach. We look for any irregularity that might tip the balance.
- Chargeback support: Even though we know chargebacks are tough for gambling, we’ll still work with your bank or card issuer. We help prepare a clear chargeback request (with screenshots, correspondence, etc.) and we’ll insist the bank review all the relevant rules. In some cases, banks do have some discretion – especially if they suspect a scam. If your chargeback is refused, we then escalate it.
- Section 75 claims: If you paid by credit card, we assist with the Section 75 route. We help you frame it as a breach-of-contract claim: we spell out the terms in the casino’s T&Cs that were violated by withholding your withdrawal or balance. We draft a formal Section 75 letter or fill out your bank’s form, armed with the same evidence we’d use in a chargeback. (We do this even though we know it won’t recover the stake, because if there’s a legitimate, unpaid win, we want that money back.)
- Financial Ombudsman complaints: If the bank or card company still refuses, we prepare your case for the Financial Ombudsman. The Ombudsman process is free, and sometimes banks back down under pressure. We won a very large case recently on a similar gambling issue where the Ombudsman ordered partial refunds. (That was exceptional: they agreed some payments were “stolen” in a sophisticated scam and made Revolut refund 50% of the losses. Don’t expect that outcome here – but it illustrates that an Ombudsman decision can sometimes claw back money when fraud or bank error is clear.) We gather all our findings into a concise complaint: it’s the same evidence we showed above, plus any denial letters from the bank. We know exactly how to argue these issues to an adjudicator.
- Advising on civil/alternative routes: We counsel on whether small claims or contacting foreign regulators is even worth trying in your case. Usually, we find it’s not, but we lay out what it would involve so you can make an informed decision. For instance, if there happened to be a UK-registered company or agent behind the casino, we might explore serving papers. But we’re upfront that these efforts rarely yield refunds.
Throughout this process, we manage expectations. Our experience tells us chargebacks against illegal gambling are almost impossible, so we don’t let clients waste time chasing dead ends. At the same time, we do fight for every opportunity to recover funds. For example, if the casino itself seems fraudulent or an employee is identifiable, we leverage every legal mechanism, including even criminal reporting, to pressure them. Sometimes, just signalling that we’re on the case can lead a payment processor to help.
Finally, we stay up-to-date on new guidance. The 2025 Financial Ombudsman ruling is a fresh precedent – we’ll use its reasoning if your bank already denied a claim, showing that even that decision tends to reject cases like yours. In conversations with banks or ombudsmen, we can cite that decision to clarify why standard chargeback arguments won’t apply. That way, you’re not left confused by conflicting information.
The bottom line
We wish we had an easy answer, but the truth is: if you lost money at an unlicensed casino, UK law provides very little recourse. Unlike betting with a properly licensed operator, you have no regulator or consumer-protection scheme to appeal to, and the card networks explicitly block routine chargebacks on gambling. Still, we urge anyone in this situation not to give up immediately. Act quickly: gather all evidence (statements, T&Cs, screenshots of the casino’s site) and raise disputes as soon as you can. The longer you wait, the harder any claim becomes.
If you do reach out for help, know that we will be candid. We’ll explore every possible route – from demanding a chargeback to filing a Section 75 claim – but we will also tell you where the road likely ends. In the rare cases where banks or ombudsmen have agreed to refunds, it’s usually because the casino’s conduct was shockingly fraudulent or the bank neglected its own policies (the “Miracle Millie” or “Ms M” cases). Those are exceptions, not the rule.
As gambling lawyers with years of experience, we stand ready to fight for your interests. But we also understand the realities. The safest move is always prevention: play only at properly licensed casinos and keep transactions well-documented. If you’re already in the situation of an illegal casino loss, let us help you try every available option. We’ll guide you through the maze of rules and paperwork, and explain exactly which steps make sense. In the end, even if a refund is not forthcoming, we can give you a clear picture of why that is – and how to avoid this risk in the future.