Leia Clifton, Senior Research Officer, Money and Mental Health; Nikki Bond, Head of Gambling Harms Action Lab, Money and Mental Health; Jason Heffron, Senior Communications and Partnerships Officer, Money and Mental Health

This policy paper looks at gambling harms in Britain and the role of current account providers to support the launch of the new programme of work. 

It shows that there is a huge gap between the number of people in need of support for gambling harms and the number of people regularly accessing these services. 

It also shows that financial service providers have a privileged insight into a consumer’s gambling spending and a unique opportunity to support people experiencing gambling harm.

1. Utilise transaction data to identify customers experiencing or at risk of gambling harm – develop spending and behavioural indicators of gambling harms to engage earlier before they experience problem gambling. 
2. Advance and refine existing tools; such as Bank Gambling Blocks, spending limits, and budgeting tools. 
3. Proactively communicate with customers identified as at risk of or experiencing gambling harms, developing targeted messaging to high-risk groups, testing interventions, tools and messages with people with lived experience of gambling.
4. Integrate gambling harm awareness into customer journeys, encouraging customers to take up gambling management tools.

Read the full report here.

Join the Gambling Harms Action Lab:

Money and Mental Health has launched the Gambling Harms Action Lab — a three-year programme working with current account providers to develop and implement new tools to address gambling related harm.

If you work in financial services and want to join the Gambling Harms Action Lab, or want more information, please contact Nikki Bond.

This work is funded through a 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.