The UK’s financial sector has experienced recent amendments in its regulatory policies. These changes are meant to restrict gambling transactions in an effort to controlling customer behavior. Barclays Bank was the first to introduce these changes, these happened when they announced a plan to integrate a gambling block component across its customers who are facing this great problem called compulsive gambling.
In its efforts, the bank has presented its brand-new mobile application which has been developed with help from debt charity Money Advice Trust. This was launched on December 11th last year and has been seen working with a positive effect on the customers. This effect led to more of the financial institutions across Europe adopting the measure. More of the UK High street banks like Lloyds, Santander, and The Royal Bank of Scotland have now followed suit. The three banks which have over 60 million customers join the 24 Million customers who already have access to this facility.
The application gives customers control over their finances and allows them to choose when to spend. More than 340,000 compulsive gamblers in Britain have been saved from the ever-increasing addiction to gambling or betting related activities. The initiative has been noted to play a significant role in reducing gambling-related effects and harm.
Barclays Started Helping Problem Gamblers
Barclays Bank was the first bank to pioneer this move as discussed earlier and has set a good pace for other smaller financial institutions to follow suit. The institution has developed a payment-blocking function which shall affect transactions made in online betting sites and high street bookmarkers. These new changes are simply an upgrade to the mobile banking applications and are able to give the customer control over when and where money can be spent.
Compulsive gambling has been identified as a syndrome in Europe affecting gamblers’ financial status. Most of the gamblers or bettors, for example, spent a lot of money on these gambling activities without having control of their finances. Barclay’s initiative has extended its services beyond the gambling community as it will also affect those having issues with excessive shopping and even alcoholism as it will bar them from pubs, bars, and some premium websites. The exclusive app feature is currently available to all UK debit cardholders and shall soon be made available for credit card users.
‘Gambling Block’ at Banks
Gambling Block is a strict measure introduced by the banks to limit endless gambling activities which have turned out to be a great threat to the financial sector. The vice, in other words, could be described as a feature that allows a person to block his card from being used for gambling transactions. This restriction is effective in the scope of no ID casino sites that don’t require KYC verification because the bank will know the purpose of your transaction if you are using a credit card. Most people in the UK who fancy gambling have been adversely affected by the way they spend their finances. In its research, Barclays has identified four more retail categories that customer wants help in managing. They include:
- Groceries and supermarkets;
- Restaurants, takeaways, pubs, and bars;
- Petrol and diesel;
- Premium rate websites and phone lines.
The gambling block feature which has been included together with other retail categories has been identified as a problem facing the client’s whirl they use their finances. Together with Gamstop, this blocking feature could cope with gambling addiction problems more effectively. With the help of the application feature, customers will now be able to spend in the right manner among the listed categories.
Conclusion
Great thanks to the Barclays foundation for the tremendous efforts it has put together to see to it that the application is functioning and serving the customers as planned. As more and more financial institutions adopt the measure, it has already been noted that the app has some significant effect on the total amount of wager and the general spending of the customer.
Money-saving experts, on the other hand, have also added that the application is a great tool for those with mental stress and difficulties in spending. All this shows a brighter and better future for Europe’s gambling market.
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