Why is Stripe the only payment processer that is integrated with Practiscore when Stripe is 100% not gun friendly. I have had and heard multiple different clubs be blocked off stripe due to their entity being affiliated with GUNS. (WE RUN SHOOTING MATCHES) One of my clubs was blocked from Stripe because the entity name had ARMORY in it…stripe thought we were selling guns through their platform…which was not the case, but they would not listen and blocked us anyway.
In the gun community, we talk about not supporting businesses that are anti-gun but yet the best Match Organization Tool (Practiscore) only allows integration with Stripe (the anti-gun payment processor).
Falling Steel World Series just got booted from stripe overnight. Not because of gun affiliations but because of the prizes. Stripe considers it gambling and violating their terms. I wonder how many other matches are in violation of their terms without even knowing it.
Obviously, a more friendly payment processor is needed on Practiscore. How can I help work to make this happen? I am willing to put up some $ or any expertise I have to make this happen. I use Payment Cloud inc. for my ScheelMFG.com website but anything has to be better than stripe.
In the meantime, What is the short-term solution for this? Old school paper registrations and payments? Any help is greatly appreciated.
Maybe it is a great service. But when their web site does not publish the pricing structure for their services, I personally find it rather fishy. Unfortunately most of the payment gateways are like that or require a fixed per-consumer subscription monthly fees (read per-club), which makes it prohibitive for PractiScore to use.
As for Stripe. You simply need to use a separate entity for running matches. May also need a separate bank account if the primary one is associated with an armoury or a gun store.
Corey,
We are sorry to hear that Stripe has an issue with your advertising “Prizes and Cash Payouts”.
Over all the years we have counseled clubs to always make sure they are not connected with gun or ammo sales. The clubs hosting matches are “promoters” collecting money for event registration. Not gun shops, shooting ranges or anything else similar. This usually seems to keep things compliant.
Being called out for the gambling side of things is new and I don’t believe is targeted at the firearms world. Every Credit Card processor will review a small portion of their customers to see if anything breaks their policies. In this situation it seems as if it has.
My suggestion to the few clubs who have had issues is to create a new stripe account not connected to the industry at all. “CS Event Promotions” for example and just keep things separated.
As far a Practiscore finding a new processor.
We spent many months reviewing what was available in the financial world when we chose Stripe. Partly because of the rate and partly because of the great integration offered. (MD’s will tell you how much they appreciate the integrated refund button.) At this time we are not actively searching to change.
I’m sad to hear of the trouble you are having. It is unfortunate, but consider that you are one of only 2 or 3 clubs per year that has issues its really a pretty good track record, all things considered.
If you need any more direct help you can always contact me directly at [email protected]
Regards,
D.J.
I will contact PaymentCloud. A quick glance at their website doesn’t show an API we could use. They hook to APIs like Woocommerce and Shopify for an entity, but don’t appear to have anything for a transactional website with many “stores” to all use the same system. And they also require each club to have a PaymentCloud account, with prices unspecified.
But I will contact them. Note that if selling raffle tickets then pretty much any vendor will have issues, as there are federal and state rules about gambling. Stripe and I have discussed PractiScore a few times, and they are terms are fine long as it is events and not selling firearms, ammo or gambling.
The Falling Steel World Series llc is a completely separate entity from my other businesses. None of which sell firearms. It is its own llc, has a separate tax id number, and its own bank account. Stripe’s issue was with “prizes of monetary value” which I know every other major match is also doing. I requested a review and it was denied. In my review didn’t say all the matches on PS have prizes because I didn’t want to ruin it for anyone else, but it seems like this is an issue that may come up for alot of MDs.
I am currently dealing with the “Prizes are gambling” issues setting up an alternate payment mechanism (with less integration) over the prize issue. And yes, I have been through certifying “we are not selling guns, gun accessories or any physical products” and is makes no difference.
@Rob_Boudrie We would like to help but which club are you talking about? The email you are using here does not have you listed as a club administrator of any club.
Stripe is absolutely pointless in Poland, considering their terms and charges. I suspect it’s also a situation in dozens of countries as well. Please devs, consider company who would work worldwide with acceptable terms and charges. It would be very handful to integrate payments into PS for our matches.
Try Helcim based out of Calgary. They are a Canadian company and are a gun-friendly company. Been using them for our gun raffles, etc. with great success. Great platform to enter payments and they deposit to the bank within 3 days. Hope that helps.
After sending Stripe money for years, they’ve suddenly decided that our business is in violation of their restricted and prohibited businesses policy. I see nothing in their written policy that we are even close to violating. We have no mention of giving away prizes of which I’m aware. They have rejected our appeal with zero specific details and we now have a request into them for phone call. They have informed us that our Stripe account will be closed in two weeks. Stripe is deeply integrated into our club’s matches/process and I’ve got people who have already registered and paid for matches that are months from now! This is a disaster and exactly what you get with a “controlled currency”.