UK has Banned Credit Cards in Online Gambling
The government of the United Kingdom banned the use of credit cards in online gambling. They have decided on this move in order to help protect the players from debts, because some do not know when to surrender in blackjack. This is a part of the new set of rules in gambling that the government regulatory body is starting to impose.
The Ban
The prohibition will start on April 14th, 2020. The only exception will be theNational lottery. The lottery tickets were exempted since people can buy them at grocery stores and it has been accessed that it might be hard for retailers to have to separately bill to credit and debit cards.
The prohibition didn’t happen overnight. The Gambling Commission reviewed the online gambling industry and found that the potential of using credit cards means that players can venture into huge debt which has been observed on numerous occasions.
What about E-Wallets?
There is still no clear indicator as to whether E-Wallets are also going to be prohibited in online gambling but this move is expected. Still, within the next two month, the exact rules will be known.
Fighting the Issues
Approximately 24 million UK citizens gamble and around 800,000 of them used credit cards in 2018. Neil McArthur, the CEO of the Gambling Commission said: “Credit card gambling can lead to significant financial harm. The ban that we have announced today should minimise the risks of harm to consumers from gambling with money they do not have.”
Neil further implied that the “Research shows that 22% of online gamblers using credit cards are problem gamblers, with even more suffering some form of gambling harm.”
As Neil implies, the data points to a fact that several gamblers who used credit cards managed to go into large debts of up to tens of thousands pounds due to the fact that they were able to do so via their credit cards. This is one of the main reasons that the ban took place in order to prevent this from occurring again and protect the players.
The New Additions
GamStop will also become mandatory at all online gambling operators. GamStop gives the players and their families the option to block each other from gambling.
A New Gambling Act
All of these has only enticed the talk that the government is working on drafting a new Gambling Act to replace the current one.
