Players wager billions of dollars online each year. But the situation got considerably worse for Internet gambling when the lesser known, but more daring, financial institutions which dominate the credit card field also backed off. The problem seems to be a combination of real fear, false fear, business judgments bordering on complete incompetence and misplaced morality. Visa and MasterCard have so far escaped liability under RICO for allowing their cards to be used for online gaming. Gambling debts, even money owed licensed casinos, are not usually legally enforceable. If a player uses his credit card to get gaming chips, he may not have to pay the bill when it arrives in the mail. Which brings us to the question of incompetence. " No one at eBay seems to have checked who those "small merchants" were. designer bags cyber monday