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Tom Watson, the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party and long-time critic of gambling and the dangers it poses, has stated that under a Labour Government, players would not longer be able to deposit money using credit cards.The announcement comes just days before the results of the party’s review of gambling regulations, which were made substantially more liberal under Tony Blair over a decade ago, will be published.
Blanket Ban
With the full list of proposals set to be released tomorrow (September 20th, 2018) this is the first big move that has been made public.Speaking of the decision, Watson said:“Gambling addiction is this country’s hidden epidemic, but there are too few protections to help people who are suffering or at risk…“Debt-financed betting on credit cards is wrong. It allows people to bet more than they can afford and particularly affects gambling addicts. Labour will ban it.”Campaigners have spoke out for some time about the dangers of betting with credit cards with attached credit limits, with it being estimated that between 10% and 20% of all gambling deposits are made via this method.
UKGC
The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) had stated earlier this year that they would be looking into the benefits of banning credit card betting, which has been backed as a premise by GambleAware.Another proposal that is expected from the results of Labour’s review, which has been carried out across the length of a year by Watson and Jon Ashworth, the Shadow Health and Social Care Secretary, is a restriction on gambling adverts, especially pre-watershed when there are concerns about the effects on children.There’s sure to be a few surprises within the proposals as well, but we can expect gambling advertising, which even those within the industry have spoken out against, to be pretty close to the top of the list.