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The UK recently announced that from 14 April there will be a ban on the use of credit cards for gambling transactions. This is a further example of how they are looking to push gambling regulations. The ban is to ensure people have less access to funds in order to gamble, and are only gambling with money that they can afford to lose.
This change will also follow on from betting machines being cut to just £2 per stake. This has already resulted in many positives reviews from what were known as the ‘crack cocaine’ of gambling. The change meant that they were reduced from £100 to £2, but many experts believed that this would only result in gamblers moving on to other forms of gambling.
They also found that the figure lost for bookmakers on this form of gambling in the UK will be up to £1.8 billion, which gives an indication of just how harmful these have been to players.
Given the concern that the move to restrict maximum spend levels on FOBTs will drive punters to other forms of gambling, the UK has pursued banning credit cards for gambling purposes from April onwards. At present, there are a number of deposit methods available to punters – including debit card, PayPal, Ukash and Bankwire – but it’s credit cards that appear to have been targeted, as punters across the globe continue to rack up substantial debts.
The question that will also arise from this is whether Australia and other nations will follow suit.
At present in the UK there is estimated to be 24 million people who gamble, and 800,000 of these use a credit card to do so. This means that there is a large number of people who are betting with money that they do not have and will then have to repay down the line, on top of additional costs from the credit card providers. These providers also usually charge a fee for each payment made that is for gambling.
Gambling is enjoyed by many people around the world but it becomes a problem when people are losing money that they cannot afford to lose. It can lead to many problems down the road. This ban on credit cards is then hopefully going to stop problem gamblers from accessing funds to gamble.
In the UK, around one per cent of the population are problem gamblers, which is a frightening statistic. On top of this, around 22 per cent of those who are betting with a credit card are believed to have issues with gambling. This gives a further indication of how this positive move can make a change, which is being imposed by the gambling commission in order to further regulate the industry.
One of the key changes as to why this will have a great impact is that it will stop gamblers from chasing their losses. This has been a very common theme, as credit cards are quite easily accessible. Players can then get this money fairly easily and then max out the credit cards chasing their losses. This then leaves people with vast amounts of debt and they are then repaying this over a lengthy period of time.
It is a positive change and its impact could lead in other nations around the world to follow suit.