Gamblers gets an Option of Blocking All Payments to Gambling Merchants

A survey was done in the UK, and the results showed that approximately 528,000 people are addicted to gambling. The result also stated that 80% of them end up having bad debts that eventually destroy their financial status.

Once you get into betting it becomes tough for one to stop. It is for this reason that two challenger banks came up with a solution to this bad habit. They have come up with mobile apps that give the current account holders of these banks the option to block all the payments to any registered gambling operator.

This feature is meant to help the players who are trying to stop spending on gambling. Tony Franklin, a former gambling addict who is using the app to quit his bad habits, talked to The Daily Mail and he confessed how gambling had consumed most of his adult life. He continued to say that the bad habits had led to him losing his home plus his family two times. His life kept getting disorderly. His relationship with banks got worse. He said that the gambling life affected his entire life; family, friends, employment, financial state, housing and eventually his health.

Tony has interest in challenger banks market as a whole. He kept looking for a bank that would come up with ways that would help him control his spending habits, and his research led him to Starling bank. Franklin says that ever since he started using the feature, he has been able to withdraw from gambling. The element has prevented him from falling back to the bad habits as many players do. They quit, and after a week they fall back. He says the bank has played an essential role in trying to get his life back on track. He has been able to pay off some debts, but he still has others. He says he will pay them with time.

Tony Franklin believes the feature is the only way to get out of the ‘cauldron of chaos’ as he calls it. Before the banks came up with the feature, players were forced to go to the gambling operators and convince them to block themselves from receiving any payments from the player. Starling bank was the first to come up with the feature, and after a short while, Monzo followed. The two banks have accounts that are operated through a mobile app. Barclaycard also offers the blocking services to their credit card holders to enable them to block their credit card from making transactions to any registered gambling operator. This is done by talking to their customer care.

As long as the feature is switched on, any trial to make a payment to an authorized gambling operator will be rejected automatically. Monzo customers can block the payments by using the feature on the app or by contacting the customer care team through the chat feature. Starling clients can block the payments by using the feature and can unblock payments anytime using the feature also and immediately an alert will show up guiding them to seek help from National Gambling Helpline. For a person using Monzo account, they will need to talk to the customer care using the chat feature on the app to unblock the payments. On request, they will ask the person several questions and try to convince them to rethink. If the person gives the go-ahead after all these, it will take 48 hours for the payments to be unblocked.