Ms Frean explained to us how this works in practice at Starling Bank: “We have introduced a gambling block in our app. We were the first bank to do so; we did it back in June 2018. This is a very simple function in the app: you can go into a section called “card controls” and turn gambling payments on and off https://www.suissecasinoenligne.com/mobile/. That blocks payments for spending codes that cover betting and gambling at the track, online and in betting establishments. We have subsequently improved that feature. We have put in a 48-hour delay, so that if you want to reactivate gambling payments, you can tap in the app to do so but will have to wait for 48 hours. … The block and the 48-hour delay are there to help with impulse control; gambling can often be an impulsive decision.”

Ms Frean confirmed that other banks had now copied this, Lloyds among them. Most had adopted a block of 48 hours. 17% of Starling’s 1.3 million customers had activated the gambling block: “They are not all people with gambling problems. There are people who turn it on because they can. When a lot of people open an account, they go into the app, see what it does, and say, “That’s interesting”. We cannot tell what proportion are people who have turned it on to stop themselves gambling. [When they switch it on] there are two effects.

One is that they will get a little message saying that we are blocking gambling and it will be 48 hours before we turn it back on. We signpost them with the telephone number and a link straight through to the National Gambling Helpline. If they then tried to make any transaction at a licensed gambling merchant, it would be declined and would not work. It does not block the purchase of National Lottery tickets, which you might buy at a newsagent or a supermarket, but it blocks most gambling.”