The US technology giants Google and Apple, which have often been blamed for putting profits before social responsibility and facilitating gambling companies, may actually back consumers’ interests this time. As The Irish Independent revealed, the two companies provided Irish gambling applications with a reliable tool to filter payments using credit cards for the purposes of gambling. According to reports, at least one large gambling operator refused to use the proposed method, saying it is not legally obliged to adopt such tools.
The revelation comes at a time when leading anti-gambling campaigners have called for the Irish Government to implement more severe restrictions on the local gambling sector.
About a week ago, The Irish Independent revealed that some of the largest online gambling operators in the country have still been accepting credit card payments through third-party apps such as PayPal, Revolut, Google Pay and Apple Pay. The use of such third-party payment systems allows the gambling companies basically circumvent the restrictions on the credit card use for gambling transactions by using a legislative loophole without technically violating the law.
As one of the companies involved in such transactions, BoyleSports, unveiled at the time, gambling operators had no mechanism to see whether a credit card is used for a gambling payment when the payment is being processed through a third-party payment application.
Irish Online Gambling Operators Use Third-Party Payment Apps to Circumvent Credit Card Ban
Now, it was confirmed by The Irish Independent that both Google and Apple include the option to recognise whether a credit card is used for payments during the process of setting up Google Pay and Apple Pay methods.
When BoyleSports was asked why it had not adopted the aforementioned feature, a spokesperson of the gambling operator explained that the company had no legal obligation to do so.
Currently, the use of credit cards is not allowed by the Safer Gambling Code of Ireland.
According to the results of an investigation held by The Irish Independent, two other popular gambling apps, the ones of William Hill and BetVictor, also provide Irish customers with the chance to directly use a credit card in order to initiate money transactions without the assistance of any third-party apps. For the time being, William Hill and BetVictor have not adopted the credit card ban as they are not subject to the Irish Betting Association’s Safer Gambling Code. Neither one of these operators, however, allow the use of credit cards in the UK where the practice is strictly forbidden by law.
On top of all the revelations made by the local news hub, it also became clear that the Irish Bookmakers Association has no legal mechanisms to sanction the use of credit cards for gambling purposes because it has not been formally outlawed by the country’s Government. For years now, the Irish Government has been trying to come up with thorough and more modern gambling legislation in order to better serve the needs for regulation of the local gambling sector.
The authorities have moved to establish a new independent gambling regulatory body that would be granted more powers to deal with the operators that break the rules. According to reports, the new gambling watchdog is expected to be appointed at the end of 2022, at the earliest, or in 2023.
- Author
Olivia Cole
