Effective, a measure against indebtedness
The Ministry of Consumption presented a new tool to combat the indebtedness contracted by compulsive gamblers through the use of fast loans. We will tell you what this measure consists of and what other initiatives are being carried out to combat gambling addiction and protect the most vulnerable users.
The EFFECTIVE system is the proposal of civil society with the support of the DGOJ and the Ministry of Consumer Affairs to combat compulsive gambling in New Zealand. ©United Left/Twitter
Faced with the increase in cases of compulsive gamblers who resort to fast credits to continue betting, the Spanish Federation of Players of Chance (FEJAR) and the Spanish Association of Fintech and Insurtech (AEFI) have joined forces to develop a system that restricts access to this funding to the users registered there. February 17, International Responsible Gambling Day, was the day chosen for the presentation at the Ministry of Consumer Affairs of this initiative: the EFFECTIVE file, which will be available in the coming months.
“It is a system similar to self-prohibition to enter casinos, bingos and gambling halls” , reveals the FEJAR in your press release . Just like self-prohibition, users have to register voluntarily in the file. Once registered, the system will deny the request for access to fast financing via online.
“We have detected that there was a high group of people who resorted to this type of credit, and not only at the beginning of gambling consumption, but also in relapses and one way to stop relapses is to cut off all sources of financing.” – Máximo Gutiérrez , president of FEJAR
The debts incurred by players in many cases they reach exorbitant amounts due to the high interest they are associated with (up to 2000%) or abusive clauses due to non-payment.
For AEFI , an association that brings together more than 140 fintech companies, which will help online credit companies to detect those requests coming from compulsive gamblers, something that was impossible until now.
"Lending money to a gambling addict is not a benefit for anyone, not for the person, who generates a bigger problem, nor for the company, which is lending to a person who is probably not going to be able to repay the credit,” Jorge Bardón told El País.
Although seen as a first step, civil society organizations such as FACUA or ASUFIN (Association of Financial Users) consider that the measures presented are still insufficient and they call on the Consumer Ministry to impose more drastic measures such as the ban on cards for deposits in online casinos.
“We very much doubt that these [financial] entities will actually sign up because it is a business to lend money” , this is how Patricia Suárez, president of ASUFIN, criticized the voluntary nature of the tool to respond to an over-indebtedness problem that is directly related to compulsive gambling.
The protection of the compulsive gambler in the new RD project on advertising
Alberto Garzón was in charge of closing the presentation of EFFICACIOUS, an appearance that he took advantage of to advance the prohibition of welcome bonus ads and its limitation to $100 pursuant to the new draft Royal Decree on advertising of the sector.
According to Article 16 of the RD, operators must verify that the specific users to whom they intend to send advertising communications about their products are not registered in the exclusion systems. The controversy is that this procedure continues to be of a voluntary nature these systems, therefore, have no effect on users with unrecognized or untreated addiction behaviors. Article 24 stipulates the same for those communications made via email.
If the Royal Decree is approved, operators must have in their online portals a section entitled "Informed Gambling” that serve the user as a guide to gamble responsibly, how to identify patterns of gambling and what to do in case of developing this pathology . In addition, operators will be obliged to offer a telephone support service to inform users about issues related to responsible gambling.
The government estimates that 0.4% of Spanish players show risky behavior. ©Nik Shuliahin/Unsplash
However, due to this voluntary nature of the exclusion systems to curb this disorder, the challenge is to find the measures that help the user to recognize his addiction and induce him to register in such systems. To address this, the decree provides that operators inform their users of changes in their gambling behavior (amount and frequency of deposits or games), as well as urge them to consult the responsible gambling page to evaluate their gambling behavior, know the existing measures in terms of spending control and exclusion, or provide names of organizations against lupus.
The text does not close the doors to a future regulation that allows to cover the regulatory gap that exists in terms of mechanisms for the detection of risk behaviors and action protocols for those cases identified.
How much is left to do?
In the presentation of EFICANTE, Máximo Gutiérrez, president of FEJAR, stated that the current measures are not enough since there are operators that send users advertising about promotions and bonuses upon detecting that there has been no activity on your account in a period of about three months.
This peculiar scenario is repeated in other European countries with a larger gambling market and high rates of gambling addiction among the population such as the United Kingdom. The British newspaper The Independent published an interesting study on the bonus ads that Google algorithms throw out when doing a search on help against gambling addiction.
Many of these bypass computer programs designed to protect compulsive gamblers and end up appearing in searches that pretend just the opposite. The disturbing thing is that the advertised ads come from illegal casinos and that they are not subject to the British regulations on exclusion.
In view of this, the answer to the question is a resounding yes, and from casinos-online we will continue to inform .
