Group Halifax offers gambling lock

The British Banking Group Halifax also follows the development and now enables its customers to block their bank cards for gambling transactions. Halifax follows a trend that other large British banks have already taken up like the HSBC. This is intended to stop the uncontrolled and partially excessive sports betting activities of many British betting friends.

Function for freezing gambling transactions

In addition to the market of the numerous online casinos, the sports betting market is also booming. The bookmakers are particularly popular in England. In some cases, however, problematic play or betting behavior goes hand in hand with. Due to the urge to the British government and for players protection some banks are now introducing a new function. The British banking group Halifax also includes them.

So can customers of Halifax in the bank’s own app With the activation of the “Freezing of Gaming Cards”, all Prevent transactions in gambling and sports betting sector. For all debit and credit cards, transfers or debits for, for example, bookmakers are blocked. Deactivation of the function is only possible after 48 hours. This “waiting time” is intended to ensure that players do not make decisions under the emotional influence of a monetary loss, but get enough time to “cool”.

“We know that people who gamble a higher proportion of their income are more likely to be exposed to financial pressure-so we have introduced the freeze tool to help them. It is important that with the introduction of a deforestation, we help to protect those that otherwise impulsively return to gambling. ”– Cornfield’s enemy, Managing Director of Consuming Finance

The blocking and credit cards for gambling transactions are only a first step in the Halifax banking group. The player protection should go through further measures are promoted. Conscious and controlled games are of enormous importance, which is why the employees receive special training from customer service. In addition, Warwick University is currently causing an analysis of the damage caused by gambling. After the study was evaluated, the results are included in the measures and also made available to the Gambling Commission and other external organizations.

Other banks are also active

In addition to the Halifax banking group More British banks taken to player protection measures. The blocking of any gambling transactions for a temporary period is one of those widespread. The banking giant HSBC Had recently announced that their customers were now possible to activate such a lock.

The HSBC published various numbers with the message. According to their own research in 2018, around one half a million customers regularly (several times a month) sports betting. On average, 52.50 pounds of sterling were set per month. In addition, there were more than 12,000 calls regarding the topic of gambling and sports betting in 2018.

Financial institutes offer blocking“Numerous banks and financial institutions, among them include barclays, starling, Monzo, Lloyds Bank, the Bank of Scotland and MBNA, have recently added functions in their apps and on banking websites with which customers have the opportunity at any time , to block your debit and credit cards as well as your accounts for transactions in gambling and sports betting sector. In addition, the HSBC is the largest bank.

As early as February, the payment service provider PayPal announced that he wanted to control transactions from this sector stricter. Various media reports were preceded that had published players theoretically possible to set a sum of up to £ 150,000 sterling in the online gambling market in one day. ”

The British Bank Natwest also followed Halifax shortly after the announcement of Halifax. In addition to the blocking of gambling transactions, Natwest also wants to in cooperation with the charity organization Gamcare Offer advice and discussions, who can visit people with problematic game behavior. This offer not only applies to customers, but can also be used by any citizen. The customer service employees should be specially trained for this. In addition, specialists from the areas of debt counseling and gambling treatment will be accessible. If the measures of the British banks, especially the activation function of a blocking for gambling transactions, have successes, it could be possible that this option is also considered on the rest of the European market.