Report

Prohibition of gambling on credit cards

This report focuses on research conducted around the prohibition of gambling on credit cards

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Published
2 November 2021

Last updated
2 November 2021 - Changes

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Contents

• Prohibition of gambling on credit cards

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• Executive summary
• Background and approach
• Background
• Evaluation Activity
• Methodology and limitations
• Methodology for key sources
• Limitations of the ban and evaluation
• Operator Implementation and customer behaviour
• Credit cards and digital wallets
• Deposits prior to the introduction of the ban
• Displacement to other high-cost credit sources​
• Displacement to illegal sources of funds​
• Bypassing the ban through other behaviours​
• Displacement to unlicensed gambling sites​
• Inconvenience to leisure gamblers​
• Conclusions and next steps​
• Appendices​
• Appendix 1: ToC Participating Organisations
• Appendix 2: Online Tracker Survey Questions
• Appendix 3: 2CV Questions

Credit cards and digital wallets

• Metric: Financial institutions block credit card payments via their digital wallets
• Concern: Allowing e-wallets to be loaded with credit cards and then used for gambling would reduce the intended level of friction that the credit card gambling ban was intended to introduce
• Assessment: We are satisfied that digital wallets loaded with credit cards cannot be used for gambling

The vast majority of remote gambling deposits are made by debit cards, but it was recognised that it would represent a barrier to the ban on gambling with a credit card if credit card payments could be made to e-wallets that could then be used for gambling.

Major e-wallet and e-money providers - including PayPal, Skrill, Netteller and Revolut – have offered assurances to gambling companies that customers cannot transfer funds from their e-wallets and accounts to gambling operators if those funds have been loaded from a credit card; some smaller challenger wallets have offered the same assurances.

These operators account for the vast majority of wallet transactions, although some other smaller wallets may not be set-up in the same manner.

There were a small number of occasions shortly after the ban was introduced where transactions from an e-wallet to a gambling account were permitted and where a credit card had been used with that wallet provider. These occurred due to errors in the merchant coding of some gambling companies and were quickly resolved.

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Prohibition of gambling on credit cards - Deposits prior to the introduction of the ban

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Last updated: 2 November 2021

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