Meanwhile, customers using the block have more than doubled in the past year, with just 8% of all customers later disabling it.
August 2019 saw the greatest increase in customers signing up to the feature, with 17,474 bankers activating the gambling block, a figure Monzo attributed to heightened media coverage.
The block allows users to stop transactions to bookmakers, both in-person and online, in addition to limiting cash withdrawals. In order to disable the feature, customers must undergo a 48-hour cooling off period, as well as discuss the decision with the customer support team.
When launching the feature, Monzo explained it was able to identify gambling transactions by specific payment codes and said the block, launched in collaboration with UK’s GambleAware, was part of a wider initiative to help vulnerable customers at risk of financial debt, estimating that roughly 5,000 of its users would be identified as problem gamblers.
Earlier this month, GambleAware published sanctioned research by the University of Bristol’s Personal Finance Research Centre stating that approximately 60% of UK current accounts were covered by blocking services.
Additionally, GambleAware urged government, financial institutions and regulators to ensure all consumers can block gambling transactions after a new study estimated that 28m personal bank accounts in the UK do not yet have access to this functionality.
Following its study, GambleAware has provided UK Finance with a blueprint detailing how to ensure that vulnerable consumers do not engage with gambling services.
