SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
Following the UK Gambling Commission’s (UKGC) credit card ban, Fintech ‘neobank’ Revolut has confirmed that it has suspended all payments to and from UK gambling sites, transacted through its popular app.
Revolut this week informed its users that UK customers ‘won’t be able to use their Revolut cards for any online or offline gambling payments in the UK’.
The statement from the Fintech bank read: “This applies to all non-remote general betting, pool betting and betting intermediary licences, and all remote licences. While many people gamble responsibly using a credit card, the aim of these new regulations is to help protect those most at risk from gambling money they do not have.”
The announcement comes after the UKGC’s review of online gambling and the Government’s Review of Gaming Machines and Social Responsibility Measures, whereby the regulator implemented its outright ban on credit card wagering across all gambling verticals.
The anticipated ban on all credit transactions was approved this January, marking the Commission’s first industry-wide regulatory enforcement for 2020 proceedings. The credit ban applies to all online and offline gambling verticals with the exception of non-remote lotteries including physical National Lottery tickets and scratch cards purchased at retail outlets.
Announcing the credit card ban, the UKGC underlined that ‘22% of online gamblers using credit cards to gamble are classed as problem gamblers – with even more at some risk of harm’. The UKGC and its policy advisors have highlighted that they believe the enforcement will reduce problem gambling factors.
