Leia Clifton, Senior Research Officer, Money and Mental Health

“I need saving from myself.” How varied banking support tools can help people protect themselves from gambling harms

11 December 2024

This programme is funded from a regulatory settlement approved by the Gambling Commission (more information at the bottom of the page).

  • We recently launched our Gambling Harms Action Lab – and in this blog we reflect on something our expert by experience speaker Darran said during his contribution: “I need saving from myself.”
  • Financial services firms can give people like Darran more tools to offer control over if, how and when they gamble.
  • Some of these tools already exist – and the evidence shows that they give people more safety and confidence.
  • As part of the Gambling Harms Action Lab, we’ll bring together current account providers and experts by experience to explore other banking tools and products that can give people more control.

At the launch of our Gambling Harms Action Lab earlier this month, Darran, a Research Community member, shared his experience of gambling harms. It’s fair to say the experience he shared both touched and motivated everyone in the room. Darran told us of his gambling experience and how he now uses bank gambling tools because, in his words: “I need saving from myself.”

Darran’s experience brought home how bank gambling support tools are a lifeline for so many. In a world where gambling is accessible 24/7, gameplay faster and more constant than ever before and relentless advertising and free gos enticing us back, it can be difficult to gamble within our means.

Darran’s experience was echoed in our Research Community survey of people who gamble and who have experience of mental health problems. Members reported that having access to bank gambling tools helped to increase their confidence with money.

Mental health problems can affect how we manage money

Research Community members also told us that mental health problems or difficult personal circumstances impacted their experience of gambling and therefore their confidence with money.

“I was in a critical stage of my mental health, long time in a domestic abuse relationship, isolated and unhappy. I started online gambling because of my frustrations and unhappiness, a small amount of money and slowly losing more money and trying to recoup the losses. I started to have financial difficulties day by day.” Expert by Experience

Even people who reported they were very confident with money and budgeting told us this can decrease when they’re experiencing a period of poor mental health. For many who experience mental health problems and gamble, confidence with money is related to how they feel about gambling. For some, money confidence meant gambling with what they could afford, whilst, for others, this meant not gambling at all.

“I trained as a fee-charging financial planner… as a consequence, I am an expert at budgeting normally. Less so when mentally unwell.” Expert by Experience

Bank gambling support tools increase confidence with money

Interestingly, Research Community members told us that bank gambling tools, such as bank gambling blocks, spending limits and budgeting tools, made them feel more confident with their money.

These tools often provided people with peace of mind, that there was additional friction – steps between them and spending a harmful amount on gambling. This led to increased confidence with money, and a sense of security and safety, which led to better general well being.

As with every experience of gambling – how we gamble, which operators we gamble with and how much – it is important different tools are available to account for different experiences of gambling. Research Community members described a variety of different methods and tools – cash withdrawal limits they put on their current accounts, bank gambling blocks and family members being in charge of their money on a temporary basis – no two experiences were alike.

Furthermore, it was not just one of these tools, but a combination of different support tools that people had in place. Different tools were used at different times and in different ways by each person, to form a gambling support plan that enabled them to to feel more confident with money going forward.

“Even to the present day, my main bank account was able to restrict my daily ATM limit to just £50. If it were still the old limit of £500, I would surely have relapsed many times by now.” Expert by Experience 

Bank gambling tools must be accessible to everyone

People may be confident with money when they’re feeling well – but this can fluctuate during periods of poor mental health. For people who experience mental health problems and who gamble, these tools can be essential to feeling confident with money, and to many of us who need support, they can be a lifeline. 

We can all experience periods of poor mental health and difficult personal circumstances that affect our confidence with money, so these tools must be accessible and available to us all. While banks already provide some tools, financial services firms should aim to adopt an approach that protects all customers from harm. This could include proactively using transaction data to identify behavioural or spending patterns that may indicate the risk of harm and proactively reaching out. 

As the Gambling Harms Action Lab, we want to work with banks to develop new tools to support customers at risk of or experiencing problem gambling. You can read our new report here.

If you want to support our gambling work, shaping what we develop with firms through the Gambling Harms Action Lab project then please join our Research Community! We want as many people as possible to share their experiences. 

But we know that talking about gambling can sometimes be difficult. If this applies to you, or if you or someone you know needs help or advice with gambling, please see sources of support here.

The Gambling Harms Action Lab is a three year programme funded through regulatory settlement by the UK Gambling Commission. When the Gambling Commission takes regulatory action against a gambling operator, one of the outcomes of that action can be a payment in lieu of the financial penalty the Commission might otherwise impose for breach of a licence condition. The Gambling Commission regularly reviews proposals for destinations of regulatory settlements and awarded funding for the Gambling Harms Action Lab project in July 2023.