Credit cards banned.

Well thats good news, it should never have been allowed in the first place.

Here is another piece of good news... 

"Gamstop is due to be made a licence requirement in 2020 which will require all online operators licensed by the gambling commission to be registered with Gamstop."

Good news, banning online would be better but you have a choice....Gamcare, that will sort you. 5 years get banned.

Good news on the credit cards, would not have stopped me as I did not use a credit card but as the guy on the radio this morning said "part of a range of measures" and as far as I am concerned if helps just one problem gambler then that is justification enough for me.

Can't really understand why Gamstop is still not a license requirement for all UK casinos after all this time. As far as I am concerned it is 100% coverage on the basis that the whole industry is fairly morally and ethically corrupt so the ones right at the bottom of the social responsibility charts who can't even be bother to implement Gamstop really must be on a par with banker scam artists or worse.  

Can't believe credit cards are even accepted on gambling sites. How is that responsible gambling. If you pay with credit card, then you are already saying that you can't afford to bet because you are paying with money that you don't yet have.

It's ludicrous. 

Paypal also need to do more. Paypal let me bury myself in gambling debt. If Paypal is a payment option on gambling site, they should only accept debit card payments, not bank transfer. Paypal did not check that I had any of the money in my bank and I was allowed to chase huge losses of thousands, having only a few quid in the bank. Only when I had spent so much, would they start asking me to use my card and that's the only thing that would end my gambling session.

All those losses would eventually debit my account 2 to 3 days later and I would be in a huge mess, again paying for more gambling in this way to try to get the money back. I racked up £40,000 of losses in this way. It's the same as credit cards. I was losing money that I did not even have. They need to check that you actually have the money in your account before allowing you the transaction.

You can only imagine the freedom I had to lose thousands this way.

Interesting to play with the nr a bit here. 24 million people in the UK gamble but out of credit card users, 22% have gambling problems. If you put this to the main figure of 24 million you will find  5.280.000 people have a gambling problem. And normally they say up to 5% of a countries population experience gambling problems. This shows that nr does not compute.

What is good is that the government is realising slowly that this problem is costing them more than they get in in taxes from it from things like evictions, job losses, medical costs, crime etc. Hopefully, it is going to hit home real soon that the circus needs to stop at some stage before the costs become unbearable. 

It's great that there are protective measures bring introduced to protect vulnerable people although if I was still gambling today I would be using the cash transfer/balance tranfer options to free up money for gambling. I was very good at being creative and looking for loopholes so I could get the fix I so desperately needed. 

I think it's important to bring the responsibility back to ourselves when we look at addiction and not place the blame on the industry. I don't mean condemning ourselves for our actions but recognising where it has all gone wrong (the root of the problem) by working with mental health experts and putting in the hard/painful work so that the obsession/compulsion is no longer a part of our lives. 

Posted by: Walliss77

It's great that there are protective measures bring introduced to protect vulnerable people although if I was still gambling today I would be using the cash transfer/balance tranfer options to free up money for gambling. I was very good at being creative and looking for loopholes so I could get the fix I so desperately needed. 

I think it's important to bring the responsibility back to ourselves when we look at addiction and not place the blame on the industry. I don't mean condemning ourselves for our actions but recognising where it has all gone wrong (the root of the problem) by working with mental health experts and putting in the hard/painful work so that the obsession/compulsion is no longer a part of our lives. 

Agree 100%

Although , it's the deliberate targeting of problem gamblers that also needs addressing.

Great news. Would have been better for me if that law kicked in a few years ago, but still good news!

Yep. I felt I was deliberately targeted. When I signed up to Gamstop, I suddenly started getting lots of emails for European gambling sites. It's like they were trying to find me places I could still bet with.....Also, near the end of the month, I would always get emails saying things like...'money getting a bit tight',' can't wait till pay day???' 'Grab this bonus and try your luck!' It's like they knew I needed cash at that time of the month.

I would even have personalised ones that said my name and that they knew money was tight right now so why not jump on board our brand new casino...it might just put a smile on your face...that sort of thing.

I got MORE emails like this AFTER a long break from gambling. It's like they were trying to coax me back. I hardly ever got emails from sites that I was registered and able to gamble with, but once I stopped gambling, I am almost sure they noticed and the messages would flood in. I still get them sent to my phone and I have no idea who these casinos even are. They sell your info on to other sites, and they use it to coax you back to gambling. 

I also got a new laptop, that I'd never gambled on before and kept seeing tons of ads targeting me for sign ups and bonuses.  I read that they can target your IP address because there's no reason in the world why all that gambling should show up like that when I hadn't been gambling for months and never used the device.

What you do on one site is learned and tracked by another. They share data and say it is in their interest to protect themselves but what it really is used for is targeting to see if you are profitable. It's not right that companies like this can do all this and breach privacy laws in the name of preventing 'fraud and money laundering' because this is only one reason why they do it.

THAT IS GOOD NEWS and a long time coming.

I still feel is mainly for selfish reasons to save their own sorry hides. I feel the tide is slowly turning and they risked prosecution for negligence.

 In my view there is certainly a case that any direct transactions are null and void for repayment.

To think they directly allowed money to be gambled is mind boggling. Borrowed money being chucked away with the consent of a credit card company.

I remember the days when you had to explain to a bank manager what a small loan was for....then credit cards deregulated the whole market and everyone was pushing them.

if not used wisely they are dangerous but the companies certainly used to overlend to get people into a minimum payment, maximum interest trap

After three years of study I disagree that it was entirely our responsibility or entirely our fault...too many easy ways in, too much false advertising, devious programming that should be illegal and the backing of a finance industry that only seemed to care if it is a "legal" activity.

Best wishes to everyone on the forum

I agree. The gambling companies need to take responsibility for enabling addicts. They design a product to be addictive and they actively seek out vulnerable individuals to gamble. The second you hit 0.00 in your balance it tells you to deposit NOW. They make it so easy to deposit, and so hard to get it out. They adopt the pending withdrawal tactic to help you to lose it while you wait. They let you gamble within seconds of opening an account, and often, don't seek verification until you win. They say they ask for verification to 'protect you and protect minors', but a minor could be allowed to bet for months before they are ever approached for proof when they want to withdraw. By this time, the addiction could already be under way. They are not trying to prevent underage gambling, they are trying to prevent winning. They prime you for addiction with huge bonuses when you join, making you spend hours spinning and pressing buttons. This is not to help you win, this is conditioning. Factor in the ridiculous bonus requirements that you have to play through, and there you go, you have finished your training. You are now an addict in the making. 

Gambling companies are forever going on about gambling responsibly yet they do not create, endorse or advertise their product responsibly. 

They encourage people to bet, ask you why you aren't in there doing it, tell you everyone else is doing it....They make it seem desirable and glamorous but when it goes wrong and you develop a problem, they pass all the fault on to you. They make you feel like you are dysfunctional for developing addiction, on the wrong side of society and that this only happens to a very few people who 'misuse' it.

This leads to further isolation, depression and dependence. It's time they accept responsibility for creating and enabling gambling addicts. I will accept my share of the mistakes, but I'm not accepting theirs.

I personally use only proven services, such as WestStein, then there are no problems. I myself found them on the Internet and quickly opened the online card for payments there. It is the most convenient and simple. You can use it as you like, for personal purposes, any funds can be transferred.