For years, anyone who tried to fund an online casino with a KOHO card got the same result: declined. KOHO blocked the merchant category outright, and its help centre said so. That appears to have changed in early 2026. As of September 2026, the company’s support page on gambling opens with a plain “Yes, you can use your KOHO card for online gambling sites.” Read that as properly licensed sites that accept Canadian players, not any offshore site that happens to take cards.
KOHO is not a bank. It is a Canadian fintech that issues a prepaid Mastercard, with KOHO Financial Inc. registered as a money services business with FINTRAC. The card only spends money you have already loaded. For players who never wanted to gamble on credit, that is the appeal. It is a method that can tie in well with responsible gambling, if used with that intent.
Note: This article is reader-supported, and compensation may be earned through some of the links included. Gambling is 19+ in most of Canada, and 18+ in Quebec, Manitoba and Alberta. Play responsibly. This article takes a national Canadian view; help resources vary by province. Across Canada: ResponsibleGambling.org. In Ontario: ConnexOntario, 1-866-531-2600, 24/7. In Alberta: GameSense Info Line, 1-833-447-7523, or gamesenseab.ca; for mental health support, call or text 211 or visit ab.211.ca.
What changed, and when
The gambling page shows a last-updated date of March 18, 2026. That is when the wording changed. The block itself may have come off earlier, though. In any case, it seems KOHO has not put out a formal announcement, as of the time of writing.
The first public sign was a post in r/KohoCanada. A user said an in-app notification told them gambling sites were no longer blocked. They had tried an Ontario casino before and been declined. What appears to be a KOHO staff account, Get_KOHO, replying under the name Chris, confirmed it. The card works on gambling sites, some transactions may need 3D Secure, and gambling purchases earn no cashback. The support page says the same three things in nearly the same words.
Not everyone in the thread had the same experience. One commenter tried PlayAlberta after seeing the post and was declined again, the same as before. Nobody in the thread could say whether that was KOHO, the merchant, or something in between.
KOHO’s own help centre still contradicts itself, which does not help. At the time of writing, the general card-declined troubleshooting page still lists “the KOHO card won’t work for online gambling or adult entertainment sites” as a possible reason. That line predates the policy change and looks like leftover copy. KOHO may well have cleaned it up by the time you read this.
KOHO casinos in Canada: three prepaid-friendly options to try
- Ruby Fortune: online since 2003, eCOGRA-certified, and the clearest published prepaid support of the three.
- Royal Vegas: running since 2000, eCOGRA-certified; cards are deposit-only, so line up a withdrawal method first.
- Spin Casino: online since 2001; names Mastercard among its most popular deposit methods and lists prepaid cards separately.
Brands for Rest of Canada players, licensed by the KGC. Play responsibly. Local availability varies with provincial licensing, so check your local sites. 19+ to play in most provinces, 18+ in Quebec, Manitoba and Alberta. Please note that all three list prepaid cards in their cashiers; however, none has officially published KOHO-specific guidance.
Why the card was blocked to begin with
Prepaid cards and gambling have a long, awkward history in Canada. Card issuers see gambling merchants as higher risk for chargebacks and money laundering. A prepaid card loaded by e-Transfer from any bank account looks even looser from a compliance desk. Blocking the whole merchant category was the simple answer, and KOHO took it.
The big banks handle gambling differently, and it is worth knowing how. CIBC’s cardholder agreement classifies gambling, gaming and lottery purchases as cash-like transactions. They are treated as cash advances. Interest starts the day of the transaction, with no grace period. CIBC also says it may block transactions it can identify as internet gambling. BMO’s credit card FAQ says the same thing in fewer words: gambling is cash-like, so cash-advance interest and fees apply.
So a Canadian gambler with a bank credit card is often paying a fee and daily interest for the privilege of depositing. A prepaid card avoids that entirely, because there is no credit involved. What KOHO has done is remove the one thing that stopped its card from filling that role.
Three casinos where prepaid cards have a track record
KOHO changing its policies is good news, but none of this guarantees a given casino will take the card. Casinos decide which card types their processors accept, and some reject prepaid BINs regardless of what the issuer allows. The sensible move is to start with operators that already publish prepaid support and have handled Canadian Mastercard traffic for years.
Ruby Fortune, Royal Vegas and Spin Casino fit that description. All three are sister brands under the same group. For players outside Ontario, they operate under Baytree Interactive Limited, which holds permits from the Kahnawake Gaming Commission (KGC). For Ontario players, the same brands run separate .ca sites under Cadtree Limited, registered with iGaming Ontario and regulated by the AGCO.
The Ontario point might be relevant even for players elsewhere. An operator that has been through AGCO registration runs payment infrastructure built to a provincial regulator’s standards. In practice that usually means more mature card processing across the board, which is a point in favour of a clean deposit.
What each brand says about its own cashier:
- Ruby Fortune’s Canadian site lists Visa and Mastercard for deposits and has a prepaid-card category alongside Interac, Neteller and Skrill.
- Royal Vegas’s Canadian payment methods page lists cards, web wallets and bank transfers, and notes that some methods are deposit-only. Its Ontario site adds prepaid solutions to that list.
- Spin Casino’s Canadian payment methods page calls Mastercard one of its most popular deposit methods and lists prepaid cards separately. Mastercard is deposit-only there; withdrawals go through Interac, eCheck, Instadebit or similar.
To our knowledge at the time of writing, no one has published a proper test of KOHO at any of these three. What they have in common is prepaid support written into their own banking pages and years of processing Canadian card deposits. That’s why this is a reasonable place to start.
What to check first
A few things trip people up that have nothing to do with the gambling policy.
Loading KOHO and depositing at a casino are two separate steps. KOHO takes Interac e-Transfer, a linked debit card, direct deposit or cash at participating stores. Once the money is on the card, the casino transaction is a Mastercard payment, not an Interac one. Pick the card option in the cashier, not the Interac option.
Check your spendable balance, not the total in the app. Money parked in a KOHO Vault is not available for card purchases, according to the cardholder agreement. Also check the billing currency. KOHO charges a 1.5 per cent foreign exchange fee on non-CAD purchases. Not every casino that calls itself Canadian bills in Canadian dollars.
Expect a 3D Secure prompt. KOHO has said some gambling transactions will require it. That means a verification step in the app or by text during checkout. Complete it, or the payment fails.
Figure out withdrawals first. Royal Vegas says outright that some of its payment methods are deposit-only, and cards usually fall in that group at this family of casinos. Winnings come back through Interac, an e-wallet or another method. Set one of those up before the money goes in.
If it gets declined anyway
KOHO’s troubleshooting list is mostly mundane. Things like insufficient funds, wrong CVC or expiry, a locked or cancelled card, a daily limit hit, or a merchant that does not accept prepaid cards at all. Just run through those before assuming the gambling block is back.
If it was a fraud flag, KOHO sends a transaction alert in the app. Confirming it was you clears the merchant for another attempt within 24 hours, but it does not push through the original charge.
Sometimes a declined payment still shows up as pending in the KOHO feed. KOHO says those usually expire and return within five business days.
The bigger picture for KOHO
The gambling change is one of several moves this year that put KOHO closer to the centre of Canadian payments. On January 27, 2026, Payments Canada admitted KOHO as a member alongside Wise, Float, Paramount Commerce and Brim Financial. Changes to the Canadian Payments Act made that possible by opening membership to payment service providers registered with the Bank of Canada. KOHO has also said it intends to apply for participation in the Real-Time Rail once it launches.
Membership does not give a fintech direct access to the clearing systems; that requires separate technical and security approvals. But KOHO now sits at the same table as the banks on payment policy.
For players, the practical upshot is narrower. There is now a Canadian prepaid card that apparently allows gambling deposits, with no cash-advance fees and no interest. Whether it works at a particular casino still comes down to that casino’s processor. If you do use it, pick a casino with a history of accepting prepaid Mastercards, and ask support before loading the card.
