After Australia’s ban on bank cards for on-line playing, the coverage proved efficient — simply not in decreasing gambling-related hurt.
With bank cards banned to be used in on-line playing for over a yr now, since June 2024, new analysis reveals that, whereas it made playing utilizing debt extra inconvenient, it didn’t deter these most negatively affected by playing. The Australian authorities hoped that the ban would stop folks borrowing to help playing habits, thereby decreasing playing harms.
Nevertheless, analysis from the e61 Institute reveals that bank cards made up solely a small share of on-line sports activities playing earlier than the ban was in place, with simply 2% of bank card accounts getting used for playing initially of 2024.
Bank cards performed a small position in on-line sports activities playing earlier than the ban.
By early 2024, lower than 2% of bank cards have been used for playing – seemingly as a result of playing transactions have been handled as money advances, with larger charges and charges of curiosity. 2/7 pic.twitter.com/VaqXEByzt5
— e61 Institute (@E61Institute) December 2, 2025
What’s extra, those that did gamble with a bank card usually had a stronger monetary place than different customers, typically having larger incomes and additional cash readily available. This meant that, regardless of utilizing debt to gamble, they have been seemingly not financially in danger because of on-line playing.
Bank card customers’ playing habits did change
Nonetheless, the coverage did reach decreasing on-line playing for this group, with on-line playing expenditure falling by round AUD $50 ($33) per fortnight. Round a 3rd of the affected group of bank card customers stopped playing altogether, or at the very least had no recorded playing transactions within the six weeks following the ban.
The ban diminished on-line sports activities playing for this group. Playing expenditure fell by about $50 per fortnight, pushed by a 15% fall within the chance of playing every fortnight.
One-third of the affected group stopped playing altogether within the 6 weeks following the ban. 4/7 pic.twitter.com/oozmdTGZnb
— e61 Institute (@E61Institute) December 2, 2025
“These results replicate inconvenience relatively than credit score constraints,” defined authors Aditya Maitra and Matthew Maltman. “Declines in participation have been largest for small bets (spending lower than $10 per week) and weren’t correlated with monetary outcomes reminiscent of liquidity constraints or debt holding.”
Whereas the information reveals {that a} coverage change definitely influenced playing habits, the main target of this coverage doesn’t appear to have focused these most prone to gambling-related hurt. The Institute famous that different insurance policies would seemingly be more practical, reminiscent of focusing on poker machines the place “harms seem like extra concentrated”.
Different insurance policies at present up for debate in Australia to scale back gambling-related hurt embrace enhancing age verification processes to guard younger folks and social stress to scale back playing adverts.
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