Effective self exclusion from gambling by debit / credit / prepaid card - Letters sent.

The following letter has gone out today to

1) Antonio Osorio, Group Chief Executive Officer, Lloyds Banking Group Plc, 

2) Ross McEwan, Group Chief Executive Officer, Royal Bank of Scotland Plc, 

3) Nathan Bostok, Chief Executive Officer, Santander UK Plc, 

4) John McFarlance, Executive Chairman, Barclays Bank Plc, 

5) Paul D. Pester, Chief Executive Officer, TSB Bank Plc, 

6) Stuart Gulliver, Group Chief Executive Officer, HSBC Holdings Plc.

Anthony Franklin

(address given)

Stuart Gulliver

Group Chief Executive Officer

HSBC Holdings Plc

8, Canada Square,

London,

E14 5HQ.

16^th September 2015

Dear Mr Gulliver,  

You may be aware of the increased public concern about the 24 / 7 availability of gambling and gambling advertising and that not enough is being done to stem the tide of destruction and misery for those who suffer with a gambling addiction, and their families.

Within this context I write to ask that HSBC Holdings Plc provides on customer request self-exclusion for gambling transactions on debit / credit / prepaid cards (MCC 7995) and provides a form available on-line or in branch for all its’ group retail banks for this purpose.

Analysis of the Health Survey for England 2012 and of the Scottish Health Survey 2012 identified 700,000 adults or 1.4% of the population in England and Scotland to be either at moderate risk of gambling addiction or problem gamblers. (Source: Gambling Commission)  

Based on the Health Survey analysis for more than 1 in 100 of your bank’s customers’ gambling addiction can be a very serious problem and the financial consequence of the problem can be devastating.

I look forward to hearing your response to this matter. 

Kind regards,

Anthony Franklin; campaigning as GamblingHurts.

Twitter: @gamblinghurts

A snap insight into how you feel after giving in to your gambling addiction. (26th June)

Fuck this world. I'm beyond help. Nobody understands my pain, nobody seems able to help me ease my pain. Try as I might to contribute to this world I'm seen as ...a burden. My poor parents despair, my wife can't cope with me, I can't cope with myself, my son loves me, I try to be at peace with the world and myself, to help others where I can, to shine some happiness into their lives where I can but inside I'm a complete mess, a complete fuck up. Yesterday I lost €3500, then somehow I won it back again, then today I lost it again. Why? I don't know. But I've been seeking help, from reading, from talking with others, from ringing the Samaritans, from ringing Citizens Advice, from the doctor, from the psychiatrist. In the meantime I am dealing with these demons I can't control them anymore. I am shit, worthless piece of crap that can't support my family. We lost our house, I'm going to lose my house again, I can't hold a job, I'm worth nothing to this shit world. Fuck this world. Fuck it.

Fixed Odds Betting Terminals may haunt the bookmaker industry for years to come. I certainly hope so.

Fixed Odds Betting Terminals (FOBTs) are high speed, high stake gambling machines that offer roulette and other casino games on the UK high streets. They came to prominence in 2002 when the casino game roulette was first introduced. At that time the FOBTs were not regulated or categorised by Government and the bookmakers placed them into betting shops without any clear operating parameters agreed with regulatory bodies.

Subsequently the bookmakers convinced the Gaming Board of Great Britain and Government that they could be trusted to self-regulate and the machines were categorised in the Gambling Act 2005.  In contravention of the spirit of the law per The Gaming Machines Supply and Regulation 2007 the industry have adapted the FOBTs to take debit card deposits when made over the counter.

Public concerns over harm being caused by the FOBTs have been steadily growing, with an ever increasing number of people losing everything on the machines with consequences on families, employers, and local communities.

At the same time there has been a convergence of other concerns surrounding the FOBTs namely. the proliferation and clustering of betting shops and other exploitative businesses such as Pay Day loan shops in the high streets, and the public have also become tired of non-stop gambling advertising in the media, particularly on TV and across Social Media platforms.

Perhaps most worryingly for the gambling industry though is the alienation of clients of their previous core business, Over the Counter (OTC) bets on horses, dogs, football etc. The bookmaker industry has reinvented traditional betting into a sophisticated trading platform based on a financial algorithm that reduces the position or closes down accounts from anybody adapt at beating the bookmaker.

Whilst bookmakers have always closed down loss making accounts, it is the growth of the FOBT industry to be their core business that has allowed them to decline or restrict bets on such a frequency that even their core customers have been alienated by their business model.

With the success of the Campaign For Fairer Gambling and the sun setting on the exploitative nature of the FOBT business the bookmaker industry may come to regret its strategy of the last 15 years.

I for one hope so. Anthony Franklin.