Monzo sees rise in use of gambling block function in the UK

The bank says it has blocked £9m in gambling transactions this year.

UK.- The UK bank Monzo has reported that it has seen a rise in the use of its gambling block function. It says that there has been an 8 per cent rise in the number of customers who have activated the block since it was made more accessible last year.

Monzo said that gambling transactions totalling £9m have been blocked this year alone, with the average monthly volume of gambling payments totalling £800,000. That’s a rise of 20 per cent from £657,000 in 2023. 

Monzo’s gambling block feature allows customers to choose durations from 48 hours to 12 months. It says that 75 per cent of customers choose the option of 48 hours.

Vulnerability manager Kate Graham said: “By staying close to our customers, we build and evolve products and features like the Gambling Block that help them to transform their relationship with money.

“Hearing from them about the impact our latest additions to the tool have made is fantastic, even more so because so many customers are controlling the urge to gamble by reading notes they’ve written to themselves in the Monzo app and choosing longer cooldown periods than ever.”

UK government outlines plan for review of gambling reforms

Meanwhile, the UK government’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has announced details of how it will evaluate gambling reforms introduced since last year’s white paper. The department will work with the regulator, the Gambling Commission, to conduct an in-depth evaluation and assess whether measures taken to date have had any unintended consequences.

The National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) will also play a role in the review, which will include an evaluation of measures such as affordability checks and the new stake limits for online slots. Research methods will include consumer and operator surveys, in-depth interviews, focus groups and tracking and monitoring.