Ada Chan Senior BDR at Starpago offers a behind-the-scenes perspective on what happens when iGaming payment systems scale across markets, currencies, and regulatory frameworks. As operations grow, payments shift from a backend function to a critical driver of performance, stability, and compliance.
In this CasinoRank interview, she explores the realities operators often underestimate, from declining authorization rates and banking volatility to cross-border complexity and regulatory pressure.
What are some common payment pain points iGaming platforms encounter as they start scaling?
Ada Chan: In high-risk sectors like iGaming, payments don’t just “break” they deteriorate quietly before becoming critical. As platforms scale, they often encounter a range of challenges: authorization rates may decline due to inefficient routing strategies, compliance issues tend to increase alongside growing transaction volumes, and reliance on a single acquirer can create significant vulnerability to sudden disruptions.
At the same time, fraud controls that were effective at smaller scales may prove inadequate under higher volumes, all while regulatory scrutiny continues to intensify across jurisdictions. High-risk does not mean uncontrolled. It means risk must be engineered properly. The platforms that scale successfully are those that treat payments as infrastructure with diversified acquiring, layered risk controls, and real-time performance monitoring.
Cross-border payments sound straightforward on paper. In practice, where do things most often become complicated?
Ada Chan: Cross-border operations in high-risk industries are never just about geography—they hinge on regulatory alignment and the varying appetite of banking partners. Complications often arise from local gaming restrictions, shifting bank risk tolerance, and the impact of currency volatility alongside differing settlement cycles.
Additional challenges include banks blacklisting platforms, inconsistent KYC enforcement standards, and the reputational risk associated with certain payment methods in specific regions. What many operators underestimate is that cross-border payments require active banking relationship management not just technical integration.
In high-risk verticals, stability comes from compliance depth and transparent processing models, not from “creative routing.”
Compliance is essential but rarely exciting. How does it actually show up in day-to-day payment operations?
Ada Chan: Compliance may not be the most exciting aspect of payments, but in high-risk segments it is fundamental to survival and is embedded in day-to-day operations. It shows up through strict onboarding processes and thorough merchant due diligence, continuous transaction monitoring and behavioral analysis, and well-defined chargeback management frameworks.
It also requires maintaining a clear separation between legitimate gaming activity and fraudulent traffic, as well as making disciplined decisions to refuse onboarding operators who do not meet regulatory standards. We operate in a high-risk space, but we do not work with fraudulent platforms. Long-term sustainability requires clean traffic , transparent operations, and strong KYB check.
“Localisation” is a popular word in iGaming. What does it really mean when applied to payments across different regions?
Ada Chan: In high-risk payments, localisation is not just a matter of geography but of legitimacy and performance. It involves working with acquiring banks that understand licensed gaming, offering regionally trusted payment methods, and structuring transactions in ways that align with local regulatory expectations.
At the same time, it requires managing risk thresholds on a market-by-market basis and continuously optimizing approval ratios without increasing fraud exposure. True localisation balances conversion and compliance. If you push approval rates without managing risk properly, you create instability. Sustainable growth requires both.
After working with many platforms, what lessons tend to separate smooth payment operations from those that constantly require fixes?
Ada Chan: The difference is almost always discipline. Smooth operators invest in compliance early, monitor KPIs daily rather than monthly, diversify their acquiring footprint, and maintain clean, high-quality traffic sources. Accept that high-risk payments require ongoing optimization.
Operators that constantly require fixes often try to prioritize short-term approval gains over long-term stability. In high-risk iGaming, payments are not about pushing transactions through at any cost. They’re about building a stable, compliant, scalable acceptance framework.
That’s the only model that survives.
With a background in digital media and a keen eye for emerging technologies, Ronaldo bridges the gap between players and platforms through clear, insightful reporting to the iGaming industry.
