The charity says that while many people carry out such activities without experiencing harm, there is an increasing concern for people experiencing issues. On its National Gambling Helpline, GamCare has been hearing from callers who feel that financial difficulties and mental health issues related to trading can be synonymous with gambling problems.
“Over the last three years, we have seen how effective tools like GAMSTOP can be for those struggling with online, regulated gambling,” said GAMSTOP CEO Fiona Palmer.
“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 Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and other organisations working in this sector.”
GamCare recently consulted banks, investment platforms, the debt advice sector, gambling businesses, and gambling support services, which resulted in the idea of regulatory bodies and services introducing a sector-wide self-exclusion scheme for all trading platforms offering high-risk investments and day trading.
Such a scheme could be widened out to collaborate with other regulators, such as the Gambling Commission.
Gamban CEO Jack Symons commented: “Many of these products (CFDs, binary options, crypto, etc) share a lot in common with gambling platforms; there’s no barrier to entry, they encourage over-trading and possess game-like characteristics. Regular consultations with advisors on the National Gambling Helpline, in addition to research undertaken by Gamban, identified the need to add these products to the Gamban block list.
“Helpline Advisors explained how helpful it would be to have something they could offer to callers desperately trying to avoid these quasi-gambling products, which made us realise adding these platforms would be beneficial both to the product and the collaborative strength of the TalkBanStop campaign.”
