Radical changes incoming for all casino sites in 2020

2020 looks to be another year of stricter rules for our UK casino sites. Last year we saw the implementation of early stage age verification, in most places we cannot even browse through the game selection before submitting relevant documents.

This year we have two major changes coming up, both rather radical steps to try to mitigate problematic gambling habits;

• Obligatory participation in GAMSTOP’s self-exclusion program
• Full stop for Credit Cards in all forms

Centralised multi-operator Self-exclusion scheme – From 31 March

Most operators allow customers to self-exclude themselves and set limits to their gambling in other ways. For someone with a bad habit, taking their business somewhere else is very easy, making this a rather toothless system, and more often than not they can also expect a grand casino welcome bonus at a competing operator to further entice them.

From March 31, all licensed operators are obligated to participate in a new centralised self-exclusion scheme set up by GAMSTOP. Operators should make access to the self-excluding mechanism easy to reach from their sites, but most importantly run new customer’s credentials against the database and deny anyone registered with the scheme.

Credit Card Ban – From 14 April

With interest and other fees, consumers using credit cards to fund their bad gambling habits are exacerbating their situation further, and this is the main reason behind the credit card ban. According to a communication put out by the Gambling Commission, some 22% of persons using credit cards to fund their accounts are “problem gamblers”.

800,000 consumers used a UK-issued credit card for gambling (2018)

This means that the new ban aims to alleviate the pains of somewhere around 175,000 Britons, and indirectly inconveniencing some 625,000 individuals that gamble responsibly. Debit cards are unaffected by the ban.