Harmful Gambling and Financial Data Report February 2023 - Report - Page 3
THE DATASET
• 77,000 applicants of whom we
accepted 5,300 for credit.
• 70% female.
• Average age 41.
• Average monthly income (from
wages and benefits): £2,049.
• Predominantly NHS and public
sector workers with ’nearprime’ and ’sub-prime’ credit
profiles.
GAMBLING IS COMMON AMONG
FINANCIALLY VULNERABLE
PEOPLE SEEKING A LOAN:
• 56% of applicants have evidence of gambling
in the last 3 months.
• 22% of applicants spend more than £100 per
month on gambling.
• We decline 29% of our applicants because
of the level of gambling.
Proportion of applicants
by gambling amount per
month in the 3 months
prior to application
No gambling
44%
0-£100 p.m.
33%
£100-£500 p.m. 10%
£500-£1,000 p.m. 4%
£1,000+ p.m.
8%
IT’S INCREASING:
• We declined 29% of applicants for gambling
reasons in January 2023 compared with 25%
in January 2022.
THIS ISN’T ’SOCIAL’
GAMBLING:
• 1 in 12 (8%) of all applicants have an average
gambling spend of >£1,000 per month.
• Of those we decline for gambling, over half
are spending more than £350 per month on
average.
• They average 40 gambling transactions per
month, but 13% make more than 3 gambling
payment transactions every day.
• For people we decline, gambling accounts for
16% of their entire expenditure on average,
but gambling is half of their expenditure for
6% of them.
Using financial data to understand patterns of problem gambling
APPLICANT A,
36 YEARS OLD
In January 2022, the applicant
made 337 individual payment
transactions with the same
betting company, withdrawing
£5,084 from their bank account.
£2,010 was paid back in to
Applicant A’s bank account from
their betting account.
On a typical day the
applicant made 30 different
transactions with the same
betting company, spending
£386.
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