The UK’s decision to ban credit card payments for gambling has not had the impact the government was hoping for, according to NatCen, the National Centre for Social Research.
Britain banned credit card payments for betting in April 2020, believing that the policy would help offset problem gambling and reduce over indebtedness from betting among the British public.
Four years down the line, the Gambling Research Exchange (Greo) commissioned NatCen to make an evaluation of the credit card ban’s impact. NatCen’s study looked at transactions and activity between June 2021 and February 2023, assessing implementation, changes in gambling behaviour, reduction of financial harms and effects on people who gamble.
NatCen’s main conclusion was that overall the ban did not have a significant impact on the use of credit for gambling. The report found that most people who gamble had not experienced any change in borrowing behaviour post-ban, and continued to avoid illegal borrowing.
The agency found that the portion of people using credit cards to borrow money for gambling has ‘remained fairly’ stable’. Just prior to the ban, in March 2020, the proportion of people who gambled with a credit card in the last 12 months was 6%, compared to 8% in March 2021.
This is not to say that the ban has been entirely ineffective. The policy has been found to have a more noticeable impact on those with low-risk gambling problems, as well as for helping these low-risk customers reflect on gambling behaviour and managing finances.
Although the ban’s impact on high-risk gamblers is a little more murky, there has been no statement issued by the betting industry calling for a reversal of the ban. The report actually found that betting operators had effectively implemented the policy and compiled well with its requirements.
The report also noted that targeted responsible measures, such as a ban on credit card payments, are an important measure for Britain’s betting industry to follow in order to clamp down on problem gambling.
Any attempts to reverse the ban would likely meet stiff resistance form the UK’s gambling reform lobby and problem gambling treatment/awareness organisations. A strong impetus for the ban’s implementation was a study by GambleAware based on data between July 2018 and July 2019, assessing 139,152 gambling accounts across seven operators.
The study found that 5.7% of overall deposits into online accounts were made using credit cards and that gamblers with significant wins or high losses were more likely to use credit cards, with 27% of players having losses of over £5,000. A further 19.8% of account holders who had received an intervention had used credit cards to gamble.
Although its impact has not been as extensive as some may have hoped, the credit card ban is now an established and accepted part of Britain’s gambling industry. Regardless of its impact, most people believe that it is an appreciated measure, particularly during a time of soaring living costs.
The UK is also not the only country to weigh up the pros and cons of such a measure. In Australia, both federal and state governments are looking to reform gambling industry regulations and practices, with a ban on credit card payments for all products except the National Lottery a flagship policy. Similar measures are also being promoted in the states, and are present in other European countries like Ireland and Sweden.
