Revolut app to block credit card payments to gambling websites
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Banking app Revolut is to block credit card payments to gambling sites in Ireland, the Irish Independent can reveal.
he move follows this newspaper’s investigation showing that betting firms here are profiting from credit card payments made through contactless apps such as Apple Pay, Google Pay and Revolut.
Direct credit card betting is banned in Ireland under industry rules.
“Revolut is planning to block the use of credit card funds on gambling sites in Ireland, in the same way that we do in the UK,” a spokesperson for the payments firm told the Irish Independent.
“This is in addition to the 48-hour gambling block that all users can currently activate themselves.”
Revolut, which has 1.5 million users in Ireland, can be funded through either a credit card, bank withdrawal or debit card.
It has developed technology that can identify Revolut payments drawn specifically from credit cards and stop them being used for gambling sites.
The company currently uses this system to separate debit and credit cards for gambling sites in the UK, where credit card payments are banned under penalty of fines.
Betting firms currently describe credit card payments through Revolut and Apple Pay in Ireland as a “loophole” that isn’t available to them in the UK.
They say that betting companies have no visibility of the breakdown in debit or credit card payments from Revolut bets.
The Irish Bookmakers Association, which oversees Ireland’s voluntary Safer Gambling Code, told the Irish Independent that the betting firms had not technically broken the credit card gambling rules.
A spokesperson for Junior Justice Minister James Browne, who is overseeing the Government’s plans to introduce a gambling regulator in Ireland, told the Irish Independent that credit card betting through apps is “outside the remit of the minister”.
He said that the matter was one for the Irish Bookmakers Association. The minister’s spokesperson added that the proposed new gambling regulator will have “discretion to prohibit the use of credit cards where it is of the opinion that the use of that form of payment contributes to problematic gambling and behaviours”.
A spokesperson for Ireland’s largest bookmaker, Paddy Power, said it was unknown how much the firm would lose as a result of the move, as the company does not know which payments from Revolut come from credit cards.
Online gambling is now a central part of betting firms’ income, rising from 26pc to 39pc of the multi-billion euro industry here, according to a recent report into the sector. Almost half of online bets are made from phones, with the firms investing heavily in their apps.
The number of gamblers suffering from addiction is “way higher” than the 30,000 to 40,000 cited in official estimates, according to Barry Grant, the CEO and founder of Problem Gambling Ireland and a counsellor in the area.
“It’s possibly up to three times that figure,” he said. “Credit card betting is a massive issue.”
Last week, the Irish Independent revealed that another betting app, LiveScore Bet, was refusing to delete betting accounts on request. The company now exclusively streams hundreds of European football matches within its app.
