The Bank of Australia recently announced a ban on all credit card gambling transactions, leaving its gambling customers scrambling to secure alternative transaction methods.
The bank, which came about as a result of the merging of a mass of credit unions, recently updated its clients with the news that, as of December 1, 2020, it will block “all gambling and gambling transactions” made with their credit cards.
The Kew-based bank’s strategy also involves eliminating gambling from the sectors that it provides with loans. Other similarly excluded sectors are fossil fuels, tobacco, exporters of live animals, and arms manufacturers.
The bank revealed that its decision to reject “casinos, online gambling operators, or companies that derive income directly from poker machines or sports betting” has the support of 87% of its customers. It stated that while it respects its clients’ choices, its new policy is informed by the principle that as gambling operators are granted more funds from banks, “the more frequent and accessible they become.”
The bank theorises that removing this kind of financing from the hands of players could “limit the growth of these companies”, while simultaneously addressing problem gambling.
Following the trend
Bank Australia is only one of the numerous Australian financial institutions that have implemented banking restrictions on punters. Macquarie has notably prevented its customers from using its cards to purchase lottery tickets.
Commonwealth Bank, Bank of Melbourne and Westpac have opted to prohibit specific transactions from their clients rather than implementing a blanket ban.
The National Australian Bank (NAB) was the first to implement these types of measures. In December 2019 it gave customers the option to voluntarily block gambling transactions on their accounts via its iOS banking app. This functionality was added to Android devices. In February 2020, and the institution reported in September that the feature had been utilised on over 50,000 credit and debit cards.
The ABA lends an ear
The Australian Banking Association (ABA) initiated public consultation in December 2020 to examine what role banks can play in reducing national problem gambling rates. The findings of the ABA’s study are still under wraps, but strong, divergent public views are expected to emerge.
Large UK banks like Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, Starling Bank, and Monzo have taken similar steps to cut back on the financing of gambling through cards.
Barclays revealed in September that it intended to stiffen gambling restrictions by implementing a ‘wait time’ of 72 hours to its gambling transaction block feature so that customers would have to endure a ‘cooling-off’ period where they can gather their senses and decide whether they really want to make a gambling transaction before the block is released.
