The block usually also includes any payments made through Apple Pay and Google Pay. The exceptions are the Lloyds Banking Group - Bank of Scotland, Halifax and Lloyds Bank - which let you choose. Major High Street banks will launch a crackdown on problem gambling this year by allowing customers to switch off spending on betting sites. Lloyds, Santander and Royal Bank of Scotland plan to.
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Halifax has become the latest bank operating in the UK to allow its customers to block transactions made on gambling websites, joining the likes of Barclays, Lloyds, Santander, and RBS.
The new blocking feature has been designed ‘in recognition of the ways in which the bank can support customers to manage their money and gamble responsibly’.
Elyn Corfield, Managing Director of Consumer Finance at Halifax, commented: “We know that people who gamble a higher proportion of their income are more likely to face financial pressure – so we’ve introduced the freeze tool to help them manage that. Importantly, by also introducing a defrost period we’re helping to protect those who might otherwise make an impulsive return to gambling.”
Halifax has confirmed that the tool will be made available via its mobile app. Customers of the bank will be able to self-exclude both their credit and debit cards from being used at bookmakers and gambling websites.
As well as being able to freeze gambling transactions, Halifax customers can also use an accompanying ‘defrost’ period, allowing customers to reverse their decision to freeze gambling transactions after 48 hours. The bank emphasised that ‘this time period allows customers to thinking time to ensure their decision isn’t made in haste or under duress’.
The feature forms part of the bank’s wider strategy to protect its customers from the risks associated with gambling. Halifax has since committed to offering additional training to customer facing colleagues the branch network and telephony services, and sharing further support information for customers online.
This has been accompanied by a collaborative study with Warwick University to review and analyse the impact of gambling related harm. The findings are due to be shared with the Gambling Commission and other external organisations in the coming months.
At the end of 2018, Barclays became the first UK high-street bank to integrate a ‘gambling-block’ component across its customer-facing digital platforms. The gambling-block feature, co-developed with citizen financial advisory the Money Advice Trust, allows customers to turn-off engagements with all gambling-related properties.
November saw both HSBC and British bank Halifaxannounce that they are helping customers to self-exclude their bank cards from spends on gambling. The function allows customers to block their cards being used at bookmakers and gambling websites, helping to prevent problem gamblers betting money they can’t afford to lose, and to restrict impulsive behaviour. Halifax customers who have opted in to the service, will not have their cards “unfrozen” for 48 hours, to help “protect those who might otherwise make an impulsive return to gambling”.
Halifax and HSBC are just the latest of a number of banks making efforts to help customers fight addiction. Barclays, Lloyds Bank, Monzo and others have also allowed customers to block gambling transactions, while challenger tech bank Starling is widely praised as being the first to introduce the feature. High-street lender NatWest has gone further, to pilot counselling sessions for gambling addicts inside branches.
Lloyds Bank Stop Gambling Block Software
The trend illustrates how being on the frontline to tackle societal issues does not necessarily mean radical initiatives and big budgets. Opportunities to bring positive change can be found in a variety of ways. In this instance, banks of varying sizes and levels of maturity have recognised their opportunity as gatekeepers between problem gamblers and their addiction. The changes they have introduced have been small, but they have been well measured and have empowered those in need of support.
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