Why a withdrawal has to go back the way the deposit came

Most operators return money to the source it arrived from, up to the amount deposited, before paying anything to a different destination. Deposit 200 by card and win 300, and the first 200 out will usually go back to that card with the remaining 300 going wherever you nominate. This is a rule about money laundering, not about customer service.

Returning funds to source is the standard control that stops an account being used to move money between two unrelated payment instruments. Without it, a deposit from one card and a withdrawal to another turns any regulated operator into a transfer service, which is a category of business with entirely different obligations and one no bookmaker wants to be in accidentally.

It does not mean you cannot change methods. It means the change usually applies to the profit rather than to the returned stake, and that the new method has to be verified in the same name before anything moves to it.

That is also the expensive part. A closed card is where this bites. If the depositing card has expired or been cancelled, the return-to-source leg has nowhere to go and the whole withdrawal stalls behind it — often silently, because the failure is at the payment processor rather than at the bookmaker.

What to do with it. Deposit with a method you expect to still hold in six months, and tell support before withdrawing if the depositing card no longer exists.