The UK-based online bank Monzo has urged the country’s Government to impose stricter measures on all banks, in order to make them implement gambling blocks on all local bank accounts.
In an open letter, supported by leading clinicians of the National Health Service (NHS), some academics and organisations battling gambling harm, Monzo called for new rules that would ensure that every bank customer in the UK is given access to a tool to block gambling on their accounts, no matter which bank they are customers of.
The proposal comes at a time when online gambling has been on the rise in the UK, especially during the extended coronavirus lockdown. In addition, the Government has also undertaken a massive review of the UK Gambling Act for the first time in years as part of the planned overhaul of the sector.
Internet bank Monzo became the first bank that launched a gambling block in the UK. Since then, a number of the largest banks in the UK have implemented similar measures to protect their customers from possible gambling-related harm. Despite this, a 2020 research carried out by one of the largest gambling charities in the country – GambleAware – and Bristol University found that about 28 million bank account holders in the UK may not be able to block payments to gambling websites.
Gambling Transaction Block Should Apply to Card Payments Too, Monzo Says
For the time being, gambling operators usually offer a variety of payment methods, including bank transfers. Unfortunately, banks are not able to consistently access the information needed to prevent such direct payments to gambling operators.
Now, Monzo says that gambling companies should disclose their account details on a special registry, saying that such a policy would make it possible for all UK banks to ensure that the proposed gambling payment blocks are applied to bank transfers as well.
TS Anil, CEO of the online bank, explained that Monzo already started working on a pilot project of its own but it needed support from the UK Government so that the scale of the project was made meaningful for more customers. According to the bank’s boss, the review of the UK Gambling Act has highlighted the important topic of protecting customers from gambling-related harm but the gambling operators are not the only ones that should be more engaged with this.
According to Monzo, UK banks should also do their best to protect their customers from suffering the possible harm that could be inflicted to them because of gambling. Apart from saying that gambling companies have to be ordered to disclose their bank account details on a special central register, the online bank also suggested that the gambling transaction block feature should apply not only to bank transfers but also to card payments to gambling operators.
Furthermore, Monzo shared that the UK Government should partner with video game companies to check whether it is possible to identify and suspend payments made by customers for so-called loot boxes.
- Author
Daniel Williams
