UK's Labour Party Moving In to Ban Credit Card Gambling
Published September 20, 2018 by Ivan P
According to a report from the UKGC, around £8.6 billion in gambling transactions is conducted every year using credit cards in the country.
The crackdown on the gambling industry in the UK continues. In the latest development, the Labour Party has announced their intention to introduce a new set of laws that would prohibit gambling with credit cards, affecting billions of transactions conducted every year in the country. Labour Party's deputy leader Tom Watson explained these proposals are results of a year-long gambling review and will be included in the report that will be published by the week's end.
Protecting the Most Vurnerable
In an interview for the Guardian, Watson explained that the gambling addiction is the country's hidden epidemic that needs to be handled seriously. The Labour Party believes there are way too few mechanisms in place to help those most vulnerable in this group and they are set to change things.
The ban on using credit cards for gambling transactions is an important measure in this process. Allowing financing gambling activities with credit cards leads to people spending more than they can afford and racking up debts.
According to the information gathered by the United Kingdom Gambling Commission (UKGC), British players deposit around £8.6 billion using credit cards every year, so if the measure is enacted, it would be a huge blow to the online gambling operators in the UK.
More Regulatory Changes on the Way
According to another UKGC report, the estimated number of problem gamblers in the UK is around 430,000. The Labour Party has serious plans to tackle this issue and reduce the number as much as possible, and banning credit card transactions is just one step in the process.
As a part of their program, the Party has also promised a full-scale ban on gambling companies sponsoring football shirts as well as new limits imposed on the number of gambling-related adverts during sporting events.
This intervention comes just ahead of the Labour Party annual conference in Liverpool and it was likely prompted by the increasing pressure on the Government to implement reduced FOBTs limits, reducing the maximum bet from £100 to just £2 a spin.
