Commentaries
Author(s): Money and Mental Health Policy Institute
Year Published: 2026
Date Added: April 24, 2026
Resource Type: Blog
This blog post describes three ways financial institutions in the United Kingdom can improve bank gambling blocks for people who gamble. The recommendations come from the the non-profit Money and Mental Health Policy Institute, through their Gambling Harms Action Lab. The staff of the organization acted as 'mystery shoppers' while testing the apps of 11 financial institutions. Findings focused on two main aspects of the apps: finding the bank gambling block feature and making people aware of external support services. Recommendations include:Increasing the effectiveness of the promotion of bank gambling blocks, in-app and elsewhere, as most customers were not aware of them.Making the process simple to turn on a bank gambling block, with only necessary text on pages.Recommending that everyone who turns on a bank gambling block contact external support services, reiterating the offer of support repeatedly, during the initiation of the block and afterwards.
This blog post describes three ways financial institutions in the United Kingdom can improve bank gambling blocks for people who gamble. The recommendations come from the the non-profit Money and Mental Health Policy Institute, through their Gambling Harms Action Lab. The staff of the organization acted as 'mystery shoppers' while testing the apps of 11 financial institutions. Findings focused on two main aspects of the apps: finding the bank gambling block feature and making people aware of external support services.
Recommendations include:
