GamCare wants self-exclusion for Crypto trading

GamCare suggests a self-exclusion scheme for stock and cryptocurrency traders in a bid to reduce harm related to high-risk trading.

According to GamCare, the National Gambling Helpline has been receiving a significant number of worrisome calls from community members linking financial difficulties and certain impacts on their mental health related to trading can be synonymous with gambling problems.

GamCare revealed that one person stated that: “I was looking at the trading apps nearly 16 hours a day. I kept putting my money in and chasing losses, whilst lying to my family about how I was getting on. On a Friday night, I would dread the weekend because I couldn’t do any trading. That’s when I realised I was no longer trading, I had a gambling problem.”

This comes not too long after a series of surveys conducted by YouGov on blanket checks and the Gambling Commission on free bets/bonuses to identify and attempt to curb harmful behaviours.

To better understand the issue and solutions, GamCare brought together banks, investment platforms, the debt advice sector, gambling businesses, and gambling support services to participate in workshops to discuss this issue.

Some participants suggested that regulatory bodies like the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Government could consider a sector-wide self-exclusion scheme for all trading platforms that offer high-risk investments and day trading.

Alongside a self-exclusion scheme, trading platforms and cryptocurrency exchanges should have tools and strategies to identify and protect the customers more vulnerable to potential trading harms.

Raminta Diliso, the head of the Gambling Related Financial Harm (GRFH) programme, a cross-sector initiative to reduce financial harm stated: “Through the insights from our workshop and experience of those with lived experience of trading harms, we believe that all relevant sectors – banks, financial services providers and debt advice organisations – could take an active role in supporting those affected by trading harms. To tackle trading harms, and ideally prevent harm before it happens, tools such as a self-exclusion scheme could offer some protection to consumers and our service users.”

Others already believe and apply such forms of protection; Gamban and GAMSTOP offer blocking software and self-exclusion tools as part of the TalkBanStop campaign.

Gamban also recently added trading platforms that offer high-risk trading products such as CFD, cryptocurrencies, binary options, and Forex trading to their gambling-blocking software.

Commenting about a self-exclusion scheme for trading platforms, Fiona Palmer, CEO of GAMSTOP: “Over the last three years, we have seen how effective tools like GAMSTOP can be for those struggling with online, regulated gambling. The area of cryptocurrency trading especially has experienced rapid growth and, with that, potential harm. We would be happy to discuss the area of self-exclusion with the FCA and other organisations working in this sector.”

More is about to happen in the near future as regulators put more and more pressure on gambling-related products, and we are looking forward to knowing how this will affect the gameplay of so many players.