If you want the full details on how to dispute unauthorized transactions, and you're a problem gambler, you can go to my blog: gamblerslifeline.blogspot.com
People talk of personal responsibility like its a merit badge. The funny thing is, 95% of people have some sort of vice...$ex...drugs...alcohol...tabacco...or maybe gambling.
I love how the cretons come out of the wood work when someone mentions disputing a gambling charge...what they fail to realize is the compulsive gambler never should have been put in that situation in the first place had the laws of the United States been followed by foreign online gambling sites.
I look at it as a price of doing business in the US. You try to take advantage of people with a compulsive gambling disorder by breaking the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006, you do so at your own peril, and know that the chargebacks will be coming.
If you want to get your money back. Here is the summary sheet:
1) Contact your credit card company/bank and tell them the company "posing" as the online gambling company is illegit. If they ask what the charge is for, tell them you don't know. It's the 100% truth. Most online gambling site's put up a front to get their unlawful transactions processed by US financial institutions. They will call themselves jewelry stores or pet stores, etc.
2) Your bank will probably make you sign an affidavit to that effect. You can sign it without worrying about committing perjury because:
a) You don't know who the company is, nor did you authorize them to charge your card
b) You've never purchased anything from them nor done business with them
c) When you asked your bank for what their merchant detail was on the transaction, it was probably anything but online gambling, which IN FACT, is the only charges you authorized around that time.
d) Most online gambling sites don't charge the exact amount they credit your account with which is another discrepancy.
So the only thing you know is that you have a charge on your credit card from a company you don't know that has an amount similar to an online gambling site charge that isn't there?
With most financial institutions, like Citi, you can be entirely upfront with the folks in their fraud department, and you don't have to worry about committing any type of credit card fraud. They say honesty is the best policy. If you are worried about it, tell the call center agent that you don't recognize this company, but you did try to send through a charge for online gambling. When the online gambling merchant code description doesn't match up with the high end pet jewelry on your statement, you're in the clear, AND you can sign an affidavit to that effect.
Financial institutions hate dealing with online gambling sites as much as anyone.