Gambling transaction block
A gambling transaction block is a setting on your bank card or account that tells the bank to decline any card payment the merchant has coded as gambling. It lives with the bank rather than the betting site, so one switch covers every operator at once. In Ireland, AIB, Bank of Ireland, EBS, PTSB and Revolut all offer a version, though some banks call it a card freeze or a gambling restriction instead.
How the bank decides what to block
The block reads the merchant category code, or MCC, that travels with every card payment. If the code is on the bank’s gambling list, the authorisation is refused before any money reaches the operator.
That design has a gap, and the banks say so themselves.
Bank of Ireland states that if a company does not use a gambling-related code, the payment may still go through, and that Open Banking payments are excluded. Revolut’s block covers card payments only, so bank transfers and payments routed through third-party apps are outside it. Apple Pay and Google Pay are included at Bank of Ireland, because they run on the card underneath.
Switching it on, off and what it is not
Turning the block on is quick; turning it off is deliberately slow. Revolut applies it immediately in the app but takes up to 48 hours to lift it. Bank of Ireland quotes up to two working days to apply it and two business days to remove it. AIB says removal by phone takes 3 working days, and up to four business days after switching off the toggle in its app.
Readers often mix it up with two other things. Self-exclusion is set with an operator and stops you holding an account there. The credit card ban in section 165 of the Gambling Regulation Act 2024 binds licensed operators, not your bank, and covers e-wallets loaded from a credit card.
A transaction block is the only one of these that follows your card.
