Westpac’s gambling blocker welcomed
Westpac has introduced a voluntary online gambling block on its debit and credit cards for people trying to end their gambling addictions.
The move has been welcomed by the Problem Gambling Foundation, however, it would prefer politicians follow in Australia’s wake and ban the use of credit cards for gambling.
Kiwibank was the first bank to introduce a credit and debit card gambling block in 2020, which gamblers could ask to have put onto their cards.
Westpac’s gambling block would prevent them spending money to gamble online with merchants identified as providing gambling services, but in common with Kiwibank’s gambling block it would not block transactions in places like physical casinos.
Once a gambling block was in place, it could be removed with two days’ notice by the cardholder.
Westpac’s service takes that up a notch, as once a gambling block is first put in place, the cardholder would not be able to remove it for three months.
Louisa Brock, Westpac NZ financial inclusion and vulnerability manager, said the optional block was something customers had been asking for. She said the bank saw examples of huge losses from gambling.
“In one example, a customer received an inheritance payment of more than $100,000, then over the next 12 days spent more than $15,000 gambling online,” she said.
That person was relieved when told they could put a gambling block on their cards.
Kiwibank estimated problem gamblers who had used its gambling blocker had been prevented from gambling an estimated $25 million.
Tom Williams, Kiwibank’s head of sustainable finance and acting head of sustainability and purpose, said the bank started offering customers the ability to block transactions for online gambling sites on their Visa debit or credit cards in April 2021.
“Since its inception, we’ve had 1230 customers request to put the block on their Visa debit or credit card. More than $25m has been saved by customers utilising the tool, with an average saving of $16,660 per customer,” Williams said.
Andrée Froude from the Problem Gambling Foundation said the Westpac blocker would provide some help to people seeking to end their problem gambling and access treatment. However, she said it was no silver bullet.
She also commended Australia’s politicians for passing a law to ban the use of credit cards for gambling, which the Australian Banking Association welcomed.
People should not be able to gamble using borrowed money, she said.
Data from the Department of Internal Affairs shows most gambling is done through TAB, pokie machines, the Lotteries Commission and domestic casinos, but tax-advantaged online casinos run by companies based overseas is an increasingly popular way people gamble.
Brock said between June 26 and September 25 last year, Westpac customers spent $136.8m with online gambling merchants, compared with $3.2m spent at physical gambling locations in that period.
Te Whatu Ora said about 61,000 people were gambling with moderate or serious levels of harm. Another 125,000 were likely to be experiencing at least some level of harm, and were at risk of falling into the serious harm category.
People wanting to put a gambling block on their cards can call Westpac, or do it through one of the bank’s branches. The block did not stop transactions at physical gambling locations, such as casinos or buying a lottery ticket at a retail outfit, Westpac said.