MATCH list placement reasons, duration, removal process and alternative payment options for MATCH-listed iGaming operators. The definitive reference.
The MATCH list (Member Alert to Control High-Risk Merchants) is the payment industry's blacklist. Being placed on MATCH means no Visa or Mastercard acquirer will board you as a new merchant — anywhere in the world — for five years. For iGaming operators, MATCH placement is more common than in most industries, and the consequences are existential: you cannot process card payments, which for most operators means the business cannot operate.
This guide explains exactly what MATCH is, the 13 placement reason codes, how to check whether you are listed, and the legitimate pathways available if you are. It is written specifically for iGaming operators, compliance officers, and payment managers who need precise, actionable information — not generalities.
MATCH stands for Member Alert to Control High-Risk Merchants. It is administered by Mastercard and was previously known as the Terminated Merchant File (TMF) — a name still widely used in the industry. When an acquirer terminates a merchant relationship for cause, the acquirer is required in most cases to report that merchant to MATCH within three business days.
All Visa and Mastercard acquiring banks globally access MATCH before onboarding any new merchant. It is a mandatory step in merchant underwriting, not an optional check. There is no approved acquirer in the Visa or Mastercard network that can knowingly board a MATCH-listed merchant for card processing.
The database entry for a reported merchant contains:
MATCH is not a public database. Merchants cannot query it directly. Only licensed Visa and Mastercard acquirers can access the database. If you suspect you may be listed, you must ask an acquirer or a specialist intermediary with acquirer access to check on your behalf.
The global scope is often underestimated. MATCH is not a regional or UK-only system. A filing made by an acquirer in Malta, Cyprus, Curaçao, or Gibraltar is visible to every acquiring bank in the world. There is no jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction workaround.
Mastercard assigns a reason code to every MATCH filing. Understanding these codes is essential: the reason code determines how egregious the filing appears to future acquirers who review your history, and it affects what — if any — remediation is possible.
Reason Code 01 — Account Data Compromise: Card data breach at the operator or their payment stack. PCI DSS compliance is mandatory; breaches at any point in the payment flow are automatically reportable.
Reason Code 02 — Common Point of Purchase: Merchant's systems identified as the source of fraudulent card activity. Triggered by card network fraud pattern analysis after multiple issuing banks report the same CPP.
Reason Code 03 — Laundering: Processing transactions that are not from legitimate card sales. Grey-market operators routing gambling transactions through front companies with non-gambling MCCs.
Reason Code 04 — Excessive Chargebacks: Chargeback ratio above 1% for two consecutive months AND acquirer terminates. The single most common MATCH placement reason for iGaming operators.
Reason Code 05 — Excessive Fraud: Fraud rate exceeds Visa or Mastercard programme thresholds AND acquirer terminates. Often co-triggered alongside reason 04.
Reason Code 06: Reserved — not currently used.
Reason Code 07 — Fraud Conviction: Criminal conviction of the merchant or a principal for fraud. UBO background checks matter; past convictions must be disclosed at onboarding.
Reason Code 08 — Mastercard QMAP: Violation of Mastercard Questionable Merchant Audit Programme standards. Applies to specific MCC categories including MCC 7995 (Betting/Casino Gambling).
Reason Code 09 — Bankruptcy / Insolvency: Filed for bankruptcy or ceased trading. Acquirer attempts to recover rolling reserve before MATCH filing; reserve shortfalls accelerate the filing.
Reason Code 10 — Illegal Transactions: Processing transactions illegal in the cardholder's jurisdiction. UIGEA violations (US players), geolocation failures allowing players from prohibited markets, processing for unlicensed markets.
Reason Code 11 — Identity Theft: A principal's identity verified as fraudulent at application. Synthetic identity fraud in the merchant application; fake UBO documentation.
Reason Code 12 — Noncompliance: Violation of Mastercard rules not covered by other codes. Broad catch-all; includes failure to comply with Mastercard's high-risk merchant requirements for MCC 7995.
Reason Code 13 — Collusion with Cardholder: Operator assisting a cardholder to commit fraud against an issuing bank. Rare; occurs in some bonus abuse operations where the operator is knowingly complicit.
Reason 04 (Excessive Chargebacks) is by far the most frequent cause of MATCH placement for iGaming operators. The 1% threshold sounds forgiving, but iGaming chargeback rates can spike rapidly during player disputes, bonus abuse incidents, or payment descriptor confusion (players filing chargebacks because they do not recognise the descriptor on their card statement).
Reason 10 (Illegal Transactions) is the second most common. This includes processing for players in jurisdictions where online gambling is prohibited, operating without the required licence for a particular market, and UIGEA-related violations for US-facing operators. Geolocation controls that fail to block VPN users are a frequent trigger.
Reason 03 (Laundering) is specifically used where operators are processing gambling transactions through entities with non-gambling MCCs — typically holding companies or affiliate entities — to obscure the nature of the underlying transactions. This raises AML red flags beyond MATCH itself.
This is the most misunderstood aspect of MATCH, and the one that causes the most damage.
MATCH does not list only the terminated merchant entity. It lists the principals — defined as individuals who own, control, or have significant influence over the merchant. In practice, this means all UBOs with 25% or greater ownership are individually listed alongside the entity.
This is why UBO identity verification is a standard and non-negotiable step in merchant underwriting. A MATCH listing at an operating subsidiary level can effectively shut down the entire group's ability to process card payments, if the UBOs are common across entities.
Joint ventures and minority stakes are not exempt. If an individual holds a 30% stake in a MATCH-listed entity, that individual is listed. They cannot argue that their minority position insulates them.
You cannot search MATCH directly. There is no consumer-facing portal, no self-service check, and no official process for a merchant to query their own status. The options available are:
Any bank or PSP going through merchant underwriting will check MATCH as a standard step. If you are declined and the stated reason is vague — "negative background check", "risk appetite", "unable to proceed at this time" — ask specifically whether a MATCH listing was identified. The risk with this approach is that multiple declined applications create a trail that compounds your situation.
High-risk payments brokers and banking advisers with established acquirer relationships can perform MATCH pre-checks before you formally approach any acquirer. GetBanked can perform this check as part of a pre-approval process, so you understand your exact position before any formal application is submitted. This is the recommended approach.
The acquirer who terminated your account is required to notify you if they submitted a MATCH filing. Ask in writing: "Did you submit a MATCH filing in connection with the termination of our merchant account?" If they confirm a filing, ask for the date, the reason code applied, and the entity and principal names included.
A MATCH listing remains active for five years from the date the original acquirer submitted the report. This is a fixed period set by Mastercard's rules. There is no automatic review, no parole equivalent, and no mechanism for good behaviour to reduce it. After five years, the record is automatically purged from the active MATCH database.
Early removal is possible only through one mechanism: the original acquirer who filed the report submits a formal removal request to Mastercard. Grounds for removal are narrow: (1) clerical error — wrong entity or individual was listed; (2) acquisition reversal — the acquirer reinstated the merchant and reversed the termination; (3) documented legal ruling that the termination was wrongful.
What does not qualify for removal: subsequent clean processing history, obtaining a new licence, changing the business model, creating a new legal entity, or providing evidence of improved chargeback management. MATCH removal for legitimately placed filings almost never happens in practice.
If you believe a filing contains errors — particularly regarding entity names, UBO names, or the reason code applied — a legal review is warranted. Solicitors and payments consultants specialise in MATCH dispute work. The success rate for legitimate errors is reasonable; the success rate for challenging accurately-filed records is very low.
MATCH listing blocks Visa and Mastercard card processing globally. It does not block all payment options. The following alternatives are available to MATCH-listed operators, with an honest assessment of each.
Bank-to-bank transfer rails — Open Banking in the UK and EU, SEPA Instant, Faster Payments — do not query the MATCH database. In regulated markets with strong Open Banking adoption (UK, Germany, Netherlands), conversion rates of 40–60% of card-equivalent volume are achievable. In less developed markets, bank transfer coverage is sparse.
Crypto acceptance — Bitcoin, Ethereum, USDT, and other major assets — involves no Visa or Mastercard network and therefore no MATCH screening. Operators can integrate via processors such as BitPay, CoinGate, or NOWPayments, or build direct wallet-based deposit flows. Crypto is increasingly mainstream in iGaming, particularly in crypto-native markets.
Skrill and Neteller (both owned by Paysafe) are widely used in iGaming and do not screen MATCH for their merchant onboarding. They maintain their own risk review processes, independent of the Mastercard MATCH database. Many MATCH-listed operators continue to process through Skrill and Neteller.
Discover, American Express, JCB, and China UnionPay do not use Mastercard's MATCH database. They maintain their own terminated merchant lists. However, operators with significant chargeback or fraud history are likely to face scrutiny under those schemes' own risk processes. The practical value of alternative card schemes for MATCH-listed operators is limited.
Prepaid voucher schemes — Paysafecard being the market leader — are deposit-only solutions that are entirely card-network-independent. No chargebacks are possible. MATCH is irrelevant to voucher processing.
Electronic Money Institutions (EMIs) regulated under the Electronic Money Regulations can provide business accounts capable of receiving and holding player funds, executing bank transfer withdrawals, and settling payments from alternative payment providers. EMIs are not acquiring banks and do not process card transactions, so MATCH does not apply to their account-opening decision.
MATCH-listed operators can still operate, but at significantly reduced payment coverage. Card payments represent 60–80% of deposit volume for most iGaming operators in card-dominant markets. Operating without Visa and Mastercard is viable in some configurations and some markets, but it is not equivalent to having full card access. Operators who find themselves MATCH-listed typically need a 12-to-24-month alternative payment strategy while the listing runs its course.
Not with any Visa or Mastercard acquirer, anywhere in the world. MATCH screening is a mandatory underwriting step, and acquirers cannot knowingly board MATCH-listed merchants. Alternative payment methods — bank transfers, e-wallets, crypto, vouchers — are available and do not query MATCH, but full card processing is blocked for the five-year listing period.
Yes, globally. MATCH is a Mastercard-administered global database, and all Visa and Mastercard acquirers in every country are required to query it before onboarding new merchants. There is no jurisdiction where MATCH is not applicable. Acquirers in Malta, Cyprus, Curaçao, Isle of Man, Gibraltar, Singapore, and all other iGaming-friendly jurisdictions screen MATCH.
If the new company shares any UBO who is personally listed in MATCH, the new entity will fail MATCH screening because the listed individual is identified as a principal during underwriting. A new corporate structure does not remove the personal listing. This is one of the most common misconceptions about MATCH.
Only the acquirer who originally filed the report can submit a removal request to Mastercard. They will do so only if the filing contained a documented error or if there is a legal basis compelling them to do so. There is no process by which the merchant can directly petition Mastercard for removal.
Yes. TMF was the previous name for the same database, administered by Mastercard and covering Visa and Mastercard networks globally. The name changed to MATCH — Member Alert to Control High-Risk Merchants — but the system, the rules, and the five-year duration are the same. Both terms are still used in the industry.
Not sure whether you or your principals are MATCH-listed? GetBanked performs pre-approval checks before you approach any acquirer — so you know exactly where you stand. Submit a free pre-approval in 2 minutes. We respond within 24 hours.
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