FiatDesk Wiki
How stablecoins work, why gambling operators, PSPs, brokers and other legal businesses struggle with banking, and the rules that apply when money moves on-chain. Neutral, dated and sourced.
52 articles · last updated 29 October 2026
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Stablecoin fundamentals
A token on a public blockchain that aims to hold a fixed value against a reference asset, usually the US dollar, and that most regulators now treat as a payment instrument.
High-risk business
Why legal businesses such as gambling operators, crypto firms, brokers, remittance firms and PSPs are labelled high-risk by card networks and banks, what that label costs them, and how it differs from being illegal.
Industries
Online casinos, sportsbooks and lotteries.
Regulation
A comparison of the main stablecoin regimes in the EU, US, UK, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, the UAE and Kazakhstan's AIFC.
Markets
How Brazil's Provisional Measure 1.394 of 25 September 2026 banned fixed-odds betting and online games, ended every licence and turned banks and payment institutions into the enforcement layer.
Reference
Short definitions of the terms used across the FiatDesk Wiki, from acquirer to VIRP, including gambling-market, UK regime and card-network terms, with links to the full articles.
What stablecoins are, how they are backed and redeemed, how they settle, and how they compare with cards and tokenised deposits.
10 articles
How businesses choose the blockchain a stablecoin moves on.
How Visa and Mastercard are using stablecoins in 2026: Visa's USDC settlement for issuers and acquirers, stablecoin-linked card programmes, Visa Direct's stablecoin prefunding and Mastercard's Global Money Platform with BVNK.
A practical scoring guide for picking the chain your stablecoin flows run on.
A profile of the three tokens that do most commercial settlement work: Tether's USDT, Circle's USDC and Circle's euro token EURC.
The services that convert bank money into stablecoins and back.
The point at which a payment can no longer be reversed.
What backs a fiat stablecoin, how fast and at what cost holders can turn it back into money under each major regime, and what happens when the peg slips.
What separates a tokenised bank deposit from a stablecoin: who issues it, what legal claim it gives, deposit insurance, network reach and regulation.
A side-by-side guide to choosing a settlement token.
A token on a public blockchain that aims to hold a fixed value against a reference asset, usually the US dollar, and that most regulators now treat as a payment instrument.
Why some legal businesses are hard to bank, and the card-network rules behind it.
7 articles
How card disputes work and how Visa's Acquirer Monitoring Program (VAMP), in force since June 2025, measures fraud and disputes.
When banks and payment providers end relationships with whole categories of clients to avoid, rather than manage, risk.
What a merchant descriptor is, what Visa's October 2026 Merchant Data Standards Manual requires of payment facilitators, gambling merchants and ramp providers, and how transaction laundering, the processing of hidden merchants' payments through a front, is detected.
The four-digit codes card networks use to classify what a merchant sells.
The share of each payout that an acquirer or processor holds back to cover future chargebacks and losses.
Visa's framework for acquiring high-integrity-risk merchants.
Why legal businesses such as gambling operators, crypto firms, brokers, remittance firms and PSPs are labelled high-risk by card networks and banks, what that label costs them, and how it differs from being illegal.
Sector profiles of the businesses most affected by de-risking.
5 articles
Trading venues and over-the-counter desks that convert between crypto, stablecoins and fiat.
Retail brokers offering leveraged foreign-exchange and contract-for-difference trading.
Online casinos, sportsbooks and lotteries.
Gateways, payment facilitators, e-money institutions and local payment-method aggregators that sit between high-risk merchants and the banking system.
Firms that send money across borders for individuals and businesses.
Country and regional briefings on gambling payments: bans, e-wallet rules, PSP duties and payouts.
4 articles
How Brazil's Provisional Measure 1.394 of 25 September 2026 banned fixed-odds betting and online games, ended every licence and turned banks and payment institutions into the enforcement layer.
A market-by-market view of how Latin American gambling rules reach payment providers in 2026: Brazil's ban, Colombia's PSP duty and deposit tax, Mexico's higher excise tax, Peru's proposed payout deadline and Chile's pending bill.
How payments work in Ontario's regulated online gambling market.
How payments work for PAGCOR-licensed online gaming in the Philippines after the central bank ordered e-wallets to remove gambling links in August 2025.
Who licenses online gambling where: regulators, licence types, taxes and payment rules by country.
9 articles
Three of Africa's biggest betting markets, three different structures: provincial boards in South Africa, state-level control in Nigeria after a 2024 Supreme Court ruling, and a new national regulator in Kenya with a 30% local ownership rule, a local bank account requirement and a 5% excise on wallet deposits.
Asia-Pacific is mostly about prohibition and enforcement rather than open licensing.
Seven EU countries that require their own online gambling licence: the regulator, what may be offered, tax rates and the payment rules that matter for PSPs, from Sweden's credit block and Germany's €1,000 cross-operator deposit limit to Denmark's PSP-only deposits and France's ban on online casino.
The four small European jurisdictions that license much of the international online gambling industry: who regulates, what each licence costs, how gaming is taxed and what changed in 2026, including Malta's new local gaming tax and Gibraltar's Gambling Act 2025.
The hub for the iGaming regulators category: one comparison table covering more than 30 jurisdictions, showing the regulator, licence model, whether online casino and sports betting are allowed, payment rules, crypto stance, tax and sourced fees, with links to regional deep dives.
Who licenses online gambling in Colombia (Coljuegos), Mexico (SEGOB), Peru (MINCETUR) and Argentina (the provinces), with the legal basis, licence model, taxes and the payment rules a PSP must check.
What the three best-known offshore gambling licences actually involve in 2026: Curaçao's LOK regime and crypto guideline, Kahnawake's Client Provider Authorizations and 2027 fee rise, and the dispute over whether Anjouan licences are authorised at all.
How the Gambling Commission licenses online gambling in Great Britain, and the payment rules that come with a licence: the credit card ban, reverse-withdrawal ban, deposit-triggered checks, slots stake limits, customer-funds ratings and the 2026–27 duty rises.
Online casino in the US is legal state by state.
Stablecoin, crypto, AML, sanctions and gambling rules that shape settlement.
9 articles
Anti-money laundering and know-your-customer obligations as they apply to high-risk businesses and stablecoin flows.
What major gambling regulators say about players paying in crypto or stablecoins, and how that differs from operators settling with businesses in stablecoins.
How the main online gambling regulators shape the way operators take deposits and pay out.
The US federal framework for payment stablecoins, enacted on 18 July 2025, and the OCC's final implementing rule of 21 October 2026.
The EU's framework for crypto-asset issuers and service providers, Regulation (EU) 2023/1114.
How businesses that handle stablecoins avoid dealing with sanctioned persons, jurisdictions and wallet addresses.
A comparison of the main stablecoin regimes in the EU, US, UK, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, the UAE and Kazakhstan's AIFC.
How the UK will regulate cryptoasset firms and stablecoin issuers from 25 October 2027.
The requirement that originator and beneficiary information travels with transfers.
Running stablecoin balances safely: prefunding, payouts, treasury, custody, screening, accounting and choosing providers.
7 articles
A due-diligence guide for picking the firm that converts, holds and pays out stablecoins for you.
How businesses hold stablecoins safely.
How regulated gambling operators pay players: verification, return-to-source rules, timing rules by market, rails from card push payments to stablecoins, and the liquidity needed to pay on weekends.
The practice of placing funds with a payout partner or in destination accounts before payments are made.
How finance teams book, reconcile and report stablecoin balances.
How businesses that receive or pay in stablecoins choose tokens, manage redemption costs, the cost of the interest ban, depeg and concentration risk, and keep backup settlement routes.
How businesses check where stablecoins come from and where they are going.
Definitions and quick lookups.
1 article
FiatDesk Wiki is written by FiatDesk Research. Articles describe the market, not FiatDesk products, and each lists its sources; if a fact has changed, the primary source wins. Stablecoins do not remove anyone’s obligations on AML, sanctions, licensing or local gambling law. FiatDesk Wiki is educational. Not financial or legal advice.