The Gambling Commission has released more details on the credit card gambling ban.
This morning, the UK Gambling Commission (GC) clarified the scope of its ban on using credit cards to gamble and how it will impact remote lotteries.
This news comes after the Commission announced it will ban gambling with credit cards for all forms of online and land-based gambling. From 31 March, operators will also be required to participate in the multi-operator self-exclusion scheme GAMSTOP.
The Commissions’ ban on credit card gambling will come into effect on 14 April.
The scope of the ban
The ban on using credit cards to gamble will apply to all remote society lottery licensees, remote ancillary lottery licensees, and remote ELM licensees. Once the ban comes into effect, these licensees will not be able to accept remote credit card payments from methods such as online payments, payment over the telephone, by email, text message or fax.
However, non-remote society lottery and non-remote external lottery manager licensees will not be subject to the ban. This means that customers will be able to purchase society lottery tickets using a credit card at land-based locations.
The ban also covers the use of credit cards to pay for subscription services. This means that customers that use credit cards to pay for lottery subscription services will have to find another payment method.
Not only will the ban prohibit the use of credit cards to gamble, but it will also extend to using credit cards to gamble using e-wallets such as PayPal.
In the statement, the commission said: “We understand that the major wallet providers will be able to put measures into effect to prevent credit card payments for gambling.”
Operators will be responsible for only accepting payment from an e-wallet where the operator is satisfied that the e-wallet provider will prevent gambling-related payment by credit card.
What has the Commission been up to?
In recent weeks the Commission has doubled down on its commitment to responsible gambling in the UK.
Earlier this month, the UK regulator outlined a new responsible gambling initiative where it will work with four gambling companies to create three working groups to help make gambling safer. The three working groups will be led by senior leaders in the industry and will focus on game and product design, high-value customer incentives to gamble and advertising technology.
SG Gaming, a division of Scientific Games, and Playtech will work on producing a new industry code for product design. Sky Betting and Gaming will lead an advertising technology working group, while GVC will oversee a group that looks at the issue of VIP incentives to gamble.
The Commission’s Chief Executive, Neil McArthur recently spoke at the CMS Gambling Conference 2020 where he said that the industry needs to work together to improve its image.
