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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’. Other sources of support related to gambling If you are looking for help, advice or support in relation to your gambling, please go to: BeGambleAware.org or contact the National Gambling Helpline on 0808 8020 133. . Outside the eight firms, no other organisation offers a bank card gambling block to all their customers. Based on our rough estimates, this means that as many as 28 million personal current accounts and 35 million credit cards may not offer account holders the option to block gambling expenditure. Three more banks to offer block gambling transactions. By Victoria Hughes, 10 January 2019. Three UK high street banks have followed in the footsteps of Barclays in introducing measures to allow customers the ability to restrict certain transactions. Lloyds, Santander and RBS will allow customers to block gambling operator payments. Problems which may leave you financially unstable could include a serious illness, mental health challenges, excessive gambling or the loss of a loved one. At Lloyds, we can often help or point you towards advice and support to get you back on track. If any of these are affecting you let us know as soon as possible. We are here to help.
Lloyds Banking Group, a UK retail banking group, has announced a partnership with security tech firm Gamban to provide its customers with a gambling protection programme.
The software, set to be rolled out by Lloyd’s, Halifax and Bank of Scotland customers, aims to protect against problem gambling sites and applications, across several platforms including iOS, Android, Windows and macOS.
Lloyd’s decision to team up with Gamban is part of a push by the bank to tackle problematic gambling by some of its customers.
The system which is integrated into Lloyd’s online payment gateway is expected to help people who struggle with gambling by blocking gaming sites and social media sites which have gaming APIs embedded into them.
Jack Symons, the founder of Gamban, said: “It’s very positive to see forward-thinking banking institutions such as Lloyds Banking Group rise to the challenge of protecting vulnerable customers from gambling addiction through barriers such as spend control and collaboration with market-leading gambling-blocking technology, Gamban.”
Elyn Corfield, Managing Director, Consumer Finance, Lloyds Banking Group said: “We know that gambling-related harm can have serious and long term impacts on our customers and we are committed to making sure they can easily access a wide range of support.
“In addition to our card controls that allow the freezing of gambling transactions we are delighted to have developed a pilot with Gamban offering our customers three months free access to their software, providing another level of protection.”
Three UK high street banks have followed in the footsteps of Barclays in introducing measures to allow customers the ability to restrict certain transactions. Lloyds, Santander and RBS will allow customers to block gambling operator payments.
Lloyds Gambling Block Software
Three further banks have introduced software to block certain transactions being made. © Pexels.
Barclays pioneered the move in blocking gambling transactions in December last year, allowing the customer to control and block particular payments via mobile applications. Three more UK high street banks, Lloyds, Santander, and RBS (Royal Bank of Scotland) have now followed suit. They have approved a proposal to develop payment-blocking functions that will affect transactions made in high street bookmakers as well as online betting sites.
Barclays was the first to make these changes when they announced a plan to integrate a ‘gambling block’ component across its customer-facing digital platforms. The main aim of this bold step is to protect clients, especially those who have any issues with compulsive gambling. The new changes are simply an upgrade to the mobile banking apps and will give customers control over when and where money can be spent.
RBS is one of the biggest banks in Europe with a customer base of about 30 million, Lloyds has approximately 22 million customers and Santander has a client base of about 14 million. Customers of these three banks join the 24 million Barclays customers who already have access to this facility.
Lloyds Tsb Block Gambling
The new gambling-block feature allows the customers to turn off engagements with any product related to gambling. Furthermore, the ability to block transactions is not just limited to gambling, with customers also able to prevent other transactions. These come under four subsections, which are petrol stations, premium websites and phone lines, food and drink purchases and supermarkets.
The customer will also have the ability to manage and limit withdrawals from cashpoints, in-store and online purchases, and credit card purchases.
A spokesman for Lloyds said that they have a plan to enhance customer engagement by improving their communications to regularly inform the users on their gambling expenditure over a specified period of time. He said:
Throughout 2019 we will be enhancing our customer communications so customers are informed and alerted to their gambling spend, as well as introducing tools to improve self-service options such as gambling restrictions.–Statement Lloyds Bank
The move by Barclays last year to empower customers has forced other banks to follow suit and has been widely welcomed by harm reduction agencies. It is likely to be rolled out by other key players in the financial markets.
Lloyds Gambling Blocking
Charity GambleAware is pleased that the high street banks are offering these facilities. He said that his organisation was fully behind the initiative and that the blocking functions will help the more than 340,000 compulsive gamblers in Britain. He believes a further 1.7 million are at the risk of falling to the same fate. He further added that such initiatives play an important role in reducing if not stopping gambling related effects and harm.
