Gamban and PayPal have entered into a new partnership, with the payments provider enabling its customers in selected territories to block gambling transactions. 

The duo have identified PayPal as a common method of payment for gamblers via both online and offline verticals, covering sports betting, horse and greyhound racing, person-to-person wagering and on gaming machines. 

PayPal and Gamban’s partnership comes at a time when social responsibility is becoming an increasing focus of the British betting and gaming industry, ahead of the White Paper on the 2005 Gambling Act review.

A statement on Gamban’s website read: “PayPal offering its users the option to block gambling transactions is a welcome addition to the gambling recovery toolkit. 

“As we’ve always said, to give yourself the best chance of successfully overcoming your addiction, you may need more than one tool. Between blocking gambling transactions at your bank and PayPal, blocking online gambling with Gamban, self-excluding yourself with GAMSTOP and seeking support from GamCare you’ll give yourself the best chance at recovery.”

For Gamban, the partnership marks the continued expansion of its operational remit, with the firm last year announcing that it would update its self-exclusion system to block user engagements and access with FX, crypto and currency trading platforms.

By entering into the payments blocking agreement with PayPal, Gamban is also further enhancing its presence in the US betting space, which has seen rapid growth since the repeal of PASPA in 2018.

Ganban’s notable US efforts so far have seen the organisation – based in Southampton in the UK and New Jersey in North America – partner with the Problem Gambling Help Network of West Virginia, Pinnacle and FanDuel.

In the UK, social responsibility measures have repeatedly focused on payments methods. Notably, the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) notably banned the use of credit cards for gambling in April 2020, a measure accepted and implemented by the members of the Betting and Gaming Council (BGC). 

Speaking last year, Andrew Rhodes, Interim Chief Executive of the UKGC, stated in an update to stakeholders: “Protecting consumers is at the heart of everything we do, we introduced this policy as part of our multifaceted work to reduce gambling harm.”

Rhodes continued: “The successful implementation of the ban across the industry and the impact on consumer behaviour and financial spend we have monitored so far is an encouraging sign that the ban has reduced consumer reliance on gambling with borrowed money.”