The UK Government is in the process of carrying out a detailed review of its archaic 2005 Gambling Act and significant changes are expected to be rolled out once the review is done.
Monzo Bank has called up on Nigel Huddleston who is the Secretary of Sport and the one leading the gambling review to force all banks in the UK to offer their customers the option to block all gambling related transactions on the debit cards.
Monzo called on Nigel Huddleston to consider their suggestions during the gambling review as it was an important step in addressing the growing concerns of problem gambling in the UK. The push to review the 2005 Gambling Act was brought on due to the increase in problem gambling numbers in the UK and to find new ways to offer better protection to British players who gamble.
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Some of the top UK banks have already put in place certain measures to help their customers who are struggling with gambling addiction. However, Monzo is calling for it to be made mandatory for all UK banks to put in place measures that will allow their customers the option to block debit card transactions that are used for gambling related purposes.
Monzo stated that it had over 275,000 customers who have used their active gambling block facilities to prevent themselves from gambling. Monzo claimed that less than 10 percent of these users have deactivated their gambling block after installing it.
Customers Not Aware Of Blocking Facilities
GambleAware published a report in 2020 which stated that 28 million UK customers which is around 40 percent of current account holders in the UK did not have the facility to put in place gambling restrictions on their bank account while. The report also showed that another 40 percent of banking customers were not aware that a gambling block tool was available with their banks.
Monzo said given the seriousness of problem gambling in the UK, the government should take the responsibility of giving all UK banking customers the opportunity to use gambling block facilities. The process of installing and leveraging these banking tools is not a complicated or an expensive process.
The Betting & Gaming Council responded to Monzo’s letter to the government and said they were in support of the suggestion and would be happy to see all UK banks adopt the system.
