Independent UK charity organisation GamCare has urged UK financial institutions and businesses to work in collaboration in order to make sure that all loopholes associated with the gambling transactions ban are closed so that vulnerable customers are protected against possible harm.
The call for cooperation comes after GamCare hosted its workshop called “Gambling Related Financial Harm”, in which a number of financial stakeholders shared their vision on the design and safety features of the tools used by banking service operators to suspend gambling transactions.
A total of 45 representatives of various financial services of banking, payment systems, debt services, current accounts, customer verification, security and compliance took part in the workshop and shared their opinions on the matter. The group also presented feedback from victims, who experienced gambling-related harm, to provide some insights on the ways gambling transaction blocking mechanisms can be circumvented.
The British gambling support charity organisaton has identified several ways in which customers, who have taken advantage of the self-exclusion option to stop themselves from making payments to gambling companies, were still able to deposit money to online gambling operators.
The “Gambling Related Financial Harm” workshop of GamCare was aimed exactly at providing some practical solutions that would result in a safer gambling environment for vulnerable players.
Gamblers Were Able to Circumvent Blocking Mechanisms by Misclassifying Merchant Codes
The participants in the workshop identified a number of ways in which gamblers, who have banned themselves from making payments to gambling companies, are still able to make deposits to such operators.
The last few years have seen a number of banks in the UK launch so-called gambling blocks that are aimed at preventing customers from making money transactions from their bank accounts to gambling operators. Currently, such blocking mechanisms can prevent only card-based deposit transactions that bear a merchant category code corresponding to gambling operators.
Due to the increase of non-card transactions that are being offered and encouraged by gambling companies, such as open banking initiated quicker payments and e-wallets, there are more ways for customers to make money transactions that are not under the merchant category code of gambling operators. This, however, results in less visibility for banking service providers.
Misclassifying merchant codes is one of the most common ways used by some gambling operators to mask transactions as non-gambling payments and circumvent the abovementioned gambling blocks on debit and credit cards.
The GamCare workshop ended up with some recommendations being made, including raising awareness about the dangers associated with unregulated gambling companies. Furthermore, the participants in the “Gambling Related Financial Harm” said that a mechanism for customers to report whenever a gambling block fails should be invented, and new payment methods that do not get traced by gambling blocks should be actively monitored. The participants in the workshop also recommended a system of cross-referrals to be created between partners from the TalkBanStop scheme, including GamCare, Gamban and GAMSTOP, and financial service providers.
- Author
Daniel Williams
