Online gambling: Should banks be doing more to help protect us from ourselves?

Online gambling has taken off in a big way, and we're confronted with betting and gaming adverts just about wherever we look.

It's almost too easy to participate - we can have those apps alongside our banking app for payment, right there on our phones.

Much like adverts for alcohol that include a cautionary line, gambling ads use the slogan 'Winners know when to stop'.

While that may be true for those who see gambling as recreation, Wendy Knowler points out, many people are addicted to gambling, and addicts have lost the ability to know when to stop.

Do banks themselves have a duty to help protect their clients from themselves when it comes to online gambling?

The consumer ninja investigated after she was one of the recipients of a letter sent to the Banking Association of SA, the National Gambling Board of SA and others.

Concerned citizen Richard suggested a ban on online gambling as one solution, which is of course unlikely to happen.

His second proposal was to get banking organisations to change settings so that the user cannot use funds for such sites.

"This has been done in the UK with great success."

"Here – the banks have half-heartedly introduced a means that can easily be overridden by the user. NOT ACCEPTABLE.”

Richard, Concerned citizen

Knowler asked the major banks here if they had any protective mechanisms like the 'gambling blocks' in the UK, for their clients.

Capitec, Absa and Standard said they did not have any tools like this at present.

Nedbank and FNB gave details of measures that they do have in place for customers.

NEDBANK:

'Nedbank currently blocks credit and debit cards from transacting in online lotteries, gambling, or sports activities outside of South Africa. We currently do not offer a block function for local gaming platforms.”

FNB:

'We do not offer specific opt-in blocks for the gambling sector, but in compliance with cross-border regulations, we block international gambling transactions across our card base. Additionally, we restrict gambling access on our Youth products on a Merchant category level and have monitoring in place.'

To hear more from Knowler, listen to the interview audio at the top of the article