Report highlights mixed impact of British ban on gambling with credit cards

The ban introduced friction but players continued to borrow to fund gambling.

UK.- The National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) has published its report on the Gambling Commission’s ban on the use of credit cards for gambling in Britain. It had been commissioned to study the impact of the ban, which was the first in the world when introduced in April 2020.

NatCen assessed the impact and effectiveness of the ban, focusing on implementation, changes in customer gambling behaviour and the impact on financial harm. It conducted a scoping survey to develop an evaluation plan and research tools, a quantitative analysis of data on gambling behaviour and a qualitative analysis using interviews with gamblers and other key stakeholders.

It concluded that the ban was implemented well despite coming at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. Operators ensured compliance and showed a commitment to informing customers that credit cards were no longer accepted. The highest awareness of the ban was among those with severe gambling problems, who were advised by email, text and pop-up messages.

The report also found that the ban achieved its main objective of adding friction to the process of gambling with borrowed money. This was especially true among customers with lower levels of gambling problems. However, respondents’ self-reported borrowing suggests that the ban did not have a major impact on the use of borrowed money for gambling.

Most people who gamble reported that their “borrowing behaviour did not change post-ban, and nearly all continue to avoid illegal forms of borrowing”. Researchers did find a decrease in the use of borrowed money among certain groups, particularly those with low gambling problems.

The report stated: “The ban seemed to have a more noticeable impact on those experiencing a low level of, or no reported problems from gambling, who were less likely to (directly and indirectly) use credit cards for gambling after the ban. We saw a statistically significant decrease in the proportion of people experiencing a low level of, or no reported problems from gambling.”

It added: “Overall, among all people who gamble, the proportion of people using credit cards to borrow money for gambling has remained fairly stable. In the pre-ban wave in March 2020, the proportion of all people who gamble who had used a credit card in the last 12 months was 6%, compared with 8% in the post-ban March 2021 wave.”