Gambling - Consultation on gambling with credit cards

Between February and May this year the Gambling Commission conducted a call for evidence on gambling with Credit Cards.  This exercise was promulgated from the advice by the former Responsible Gambling Strategy Board (now Advisory Board for Safer Gambling) that gambling with borrowed money is a well-established risk factor for harmful gambling because it significantly increases the risk that consumers will gamble with more money than they can afford.

The Commission wish to explore the consequences of restricting or prohibiting the use of credit cards.

Having considered the responses to the earlier call for evidence, the Commission have now opened a consultation running to 6^th November.

The Commission state they are persuaded that there are risks of harm associated with using credit cards for online gambling and that they need to act to protect consumers. They are therefore now consulting specifically on two separate options of either banning or restricting the use of credit cards for all forms of remote gambling i.e. betting, gaming and lotteries.

Any prohibition or restriction on gambling with credit cards would be effected through changes to LCCP, and the Commission are therefore also consulting on specific draft conditions and codes that would deliver these measures.

The proposed changes to LCCP, arising from this consultation, are planned to take effect in April 2020, subject to reviewing evidence put forward in relation to the lead-in times that gambling operators and payment processors will require to make systemic or technological changes necessary to either prevent or control the use of credit cards.

We shall keep you updated.