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David Collings, Sharon Collard and Jamie Evans, Personal Finance Research Centre, University of Bristol
Back in July we published a review of bank card gambling blockers – a feature that allows a debit or credit card customer to block their account or card from being used for gambling transactions. Working with GambleAware, we evaluated the potential for these blockers to help those who want to control their gambling.
Our review brought together bank data on customer use of blockers; discussions with treatment providers, firms and regulatory bodies; and, crucially, insights from over 100 interviews and surveys with people who have lived experience of gambling. It showed that blocker technology works and can help people control their gambling spend, but card blockers need to be more widely available than is currently the case. And, where offered, their design should incorporate elements of ‘positive friction’ in the form of ‘cooling-off’ periods.
Cottage Creek Piggy Bank, Casino Money Coin Bank, Round Ceramic Slots Jar with Black Lid, Gambling and Vegas Money Bank White 4.3 out of 5 stars 6 $22.99 $ 22. Using a credit or debit card to fund your gambling account is the most popular and widespread method all over the world, which shouldn’t be all that surprising if you consider how popular brands like MasterCard, Visa, American Express or Discover are.
Making gambling blocks more widely available
At the time our report was written, eight firms advertised and offered blockers to their customers either on credit cards, debit cards or both. These include five of the nine largest banks and building societies in the UK – Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, Royal Bank of Scotland Group and Santander – together with three other banks – Cashplus, Monzo and Starling.
We estimated that gambling blocks on debit cards are available for roughly 60% of personal current accounts (around 49 million accounts) and at least 40% of credit card customers (roughly 26 million cards). But if Santander and the Royal Bank of Scotland Group were to offer gambling blockers to all their debit card customers, we estimate that blockers would be available for around 90% of current accounts (equivalent to 70 million accounts – 22 million more than at present).
Making sure gambling blockers include ‘positive friction’
Increasing availability of these blocks isn’t enough on its own. Our findings show that blockers need to include ‘positive friction’ in the form of ‘cooling-off’ periods – to encourage time and reflection before someone can gamble again – in order to be effective.
As the table above shows, five of the eight firms offering blockers included a cooling-off period – a period after a customer disables the block before they can gamble again – while the remaining three blockers could immediately be toggled on and off, meaning they functioned more like a light switch than a lock.
But this is a fast-changing landscape. In September Barclays announced it is introducing a 72 hour cooling-off period to its gambling blocker, responding to customer feedback about the positive impact of such a delay, making it the first bank to introduce a cooling-off period off this length. This customer feedback echoes findings from our research, where nearly 60% of respondents with lived experience of gambling felt that a cooling-off period should be longer than 48 hours.
In fact, the message from those affected by gambling was clear: the more positive friction that can be built into a bank blocker, the better. Our research also explored other examples of positive friction that could be beneficial, including making gambling blocks the default on new bank cards, or automatic alerts for third parties such as a friend or family member related to gambling spend.
More to be done
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Our interviews with banks highlighted three main motivations for developing and implementing gambling blocks: ‘soft’ pressure from regulators; evidence of customer harm from gambling; and market ‘peer pressure’ as other banks launched gambling blocks for their card customers.
We therefore reiterate our call on the Financial Conduct Authority as part of its forthcoming guidance on the fair treatment of vulnerable customers to recommend that gambling blocks are standard on all credit and debit cards and require customers to wait at least 48 hours between turning off the blocker and being able use that card to gamble.
Finally, introducing gambling blockers shouldn’t be seen as ‘job done’ for banks and building societies – there is much more work to do and the purpose of our three-year MAGPIE research programme is to help progress that agenda. Similarly, other organisations beyond banks still need to be taking robust action to reduce gambling harms.
The Personal Finance Research Centre’s Money and Gambling: Practice, Insight, Evidence, or MAGPIE for short, is a three-year independent programme funded by GambleAware to explore ways in which the UK financial services industry can help reduce gambling harms. Please visit the project’s website to find out more about the programme and to find out how to get involved.
Katrina Gaffney, External Affairs Officer, Money and Mental Health.
We recently shared our three top takeaways from our conference for financial services firms on tackling gambling harms. In this next blog, we’ll be exploring in more detail what we learnt from our speakers about the ways in which banks are innovating to provide support for customers who struggle to manage their gambling, and how these interventions can be made more effective.
Gambling blocks have had a big impact — but there is room for improvement
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“It still amazes me that after most of my adult life gambling, it all came down to a single button in my bank app… that was enough of a hurdle to start my journey to not gamble again.” Danny Cheetham, Expert by Experience and campaigner for safer gambling
Gambling blocks on cards have become a more familiar concept, as many high street banks now offer them to their customers – but they still aren’t available to everyone. Research by the Personal Finance Research Centre estimates that 28 million personal current account holders are not able to block spending on gambling, highlighting that work needs to be done to make these tools more widely available.
But it’s not as simple as offering gambling blocks on cards — financial services providers need to think about the design of these blocks if they are to be effective. The key thing here is friction. During a panel discussion, Natalie Ledward, Vulnerability Manager at Monzo, talked about the multiple stages their customers have to go through in order to turn their gambling block off – including talking to a support team and waiting for a 48 hour ‘cooling off’ period. Her fellow panellist Matt Robinson, who works on Customer Needs, Strategy, Performance and Planning at Barclays, also talked about the bank’s recent introduction of a 72 hour cooling off period on their gambling block in response to customer feedback which said the initial block was too easy to turn on and off. These increased levels of friction can offer valuable breathing space for people who struggle with gambling to think about their decision before they can start gambling with their card again – and it’s really important for other financial services firms to incorporate this design element into their gambling card blocks.
There’s lots of potential in the use of data - but only if accompanied by good customer support
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“It’s really important for all of us today, particularly colleagues from the financial services industry to think about the role you can play in not just addressing the harms that come from gambling, but actually in helping to identify them and helping people feel confident talking about them.” Tim Miller, Executive Director, Gambling Commission
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Across the conference we saw multiple examples of how financial data could be used to identify customers at risk of gambling harm and support them. But we also heard about the appetite for this kind of intervention from customers. Matt Robinson quoted Barclays’ own research on this issue, which found that 72% of customers who had recently started spending increased amounts of money on online gambling were in favour of the bank taking some action based on this knowledge.
In response to their research, Barclays designed a test pilot at the beginning of 2020 identifying customers potentially at risk of problem gambling and offering them support. This meant looking at customers’ use of the gambling block, their spending patterns on gambling, and the effect this was having on overall financial vulnerability. Those potentially at risk were offered a phone call to discuss their gambling with a staff member who had received training from GamCare (a charity which provides support to people affected by problem gambling) and could offer a warm transfer to Gamcare’s services.
Charlotte Grannan, Customers in Vulnerable Situations Policy Manager at Natwest, also provided some practical examples of what Natwest were doing to support customers struggling with gambling, including offering use of rooms for counsellers to provide support in branches, and organising Gamcare training for staff working in debt management operations teams. These examples show that while innovations with data can play a significant role in reducing gambling harm, they need to be used in tandem with appropriate, personal customer support.
We’ll be continuing to explore the opportunities for financial services firms to tackle gambling harm over the course of our two year project working with industry to drive innovation on this.
If you work in financial services, and would like to keep up to date with this programme, sign up to our professional network here.