Can payment behaviour signal harmful gambling?

Today’s Responsible Gambling strategies typically focus on three areas: 

• Operator-driven safer gambling tools and resources

• Government policies and interventions

• Individual responsibility to practice safer gambling

What if financial institutions were added to the list?

Nathan Lakew, Jakob Jonsson, and Philip Lindner conducted a Delphi study to identify financial indicators that could help evaluate gambling consumption.

Jakob Jonsson, licensed psychologist and one of the researchers behind the article, commented:

“While the measures gambling operators take are important, they are inherently limited. An operator can only see a customer’s activity on their own platform, so looking at financial indicators provides a more complete view of the customer.”

Jakob Jonsson, PhD and Responsible Gambling expert, at Sustainable Gambling

Thirteen experts weighed in – and reached consensus (80% or higher) on 31 financial indicators across three categories:

• Background Indicators

  • Person turns up in a debt collector’s registry during a credit check

• Payment Indicators

  • Person asks to be blocked due to a gambling issue

  • Person makes a wager at certain times of day

  • Person requests to restrict betting amount due to self-awareness of problem gambling

  • Person requests help for a gambling problem

  • Multiple payment methods used to make a wager

  • Blaming financial service providers for gambling loss

  • Increase in number of gambling transactions during observation

  • Wagering all wins at once

  • Increasing wager size in a short period of time

  • Bank refused to process a wager due to insufficient funds

  • The use of credit cards for gambling activities

  • The number of cards and/or bank accounts registered

  • Getting lower wager limit than requested due to internal credit check

  • Consecutive increase in wager amount on same gambling site

  • Person continues to wager despite unpaid credit with multiple reminders

  • Cancelling a win payout request

  • Request for raising the budget ceiling

  • Making wagers on multiple gambling sites within 24 hours

  • Person asks for a bonus for gambling

  • Being rude to a customer service agent

  • Arbitrary increase in wager after a steady bet amount

  • Fluctuation in win payouts (high/low)

  • Number of payment reminders from provider

  • Steady increase in wager accompanied by small win payouts

  • One-time arbitrary high bet or bursts of betting

  • A sudden drop in wager after a steady wager increase

• Financial Literacy Indicators

  • Request for possibility of setting a budget limit

  • Gambling operator rejects deposit due to hitting time/deposit limit

  • Clear preference for e-wallets/prepaid cards over direct bank deposits

  • Tendency to gamble on high-risk games (e.g., casino games)