UKGC data: Credit card gambling ban has proved popular with consumers

The UK’s credit card ban on gambling is popular among consumers and has not resulted in harmful unintended consequences, according to an interim evaluation from the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC).

The regulator imposed the credit card ban as a licensing requirement in April 2020 as it sought to add a layer of protection for those at risk of and experiencing gambling-related harm.

According to the UKGC, the step was taken to protect the 10.5 million people in the UK who gamble, out of which 800,000 were using credit cards to gamble.

Research highlighted that 22% of online gamblers using credit cards were problem gamblers. Hence the ban was imposed to prevent the friction that occurs when gambling with borrowed money.

The new evaluation acknowledges that while consumers are aware of ways to legally bypass the ban, far more people who previously gambled with credit cards now gamble with available funds over other types of borrowed money.

Additionally, data from one high-street bank showed there was no observed spike for money transfers from former credit card gamblers in the three months after the ban.

Key sources used to inform the report were the UKGC’s Online Tracker survey, which collects data quarterly from a nationally representative sample of approximately 2,000 adults aged 18+ in Great Britain, and Consumer Voice research completed by 2CV, which involved an eight-day online programme with 30 respondents.

“Protecting consumers is at the heart of everything we do and we introduced this policy as part of our multifaceted work to reduce gambling harm,” said UKGC CEO Andrew Rhodes.

“The successful implementation of the ban across the industry and the impact on consumer behaviour and financial spend we have monitored so far is an encouraging sign that the ban has reduced consumer reliance on gambling with borrowed money,” he added.

The regulator has pledged to monitor ongoing consumer behaviour to ensure there is not an increase in harmful forms of funding gambling activity.

NatCen Social Research has been commissioned to conduct a full evaluation of the ban on credit card gambling by Greo as part of their programme of work to strengthen the evaluation of safer gambling initiatives.

This is scheduled for completion in early 2023 and the UKGC has pledged to use its findings to inform future policy development.

“We look forward to NatCen’s report on the long-term impacts of the ban and how this can inform our future policies,” added Rhodes.

The full interim evaluation report can be accessed here.