New Language Update Strengthens Support in Norway

At Gamban, we’re always working to remove any barriers in the way of quitting gambling. Today, we’re proud to announce that Gamban is now available in Norwegian!This update ensures that even more individuals across Norway can use Gamban with ease, giving them access to a trusted gambling-blocking solution in their native language.<h3>Why We Chose Norwegian</h3>Despite Norway’s strict gambling regulations, unlicensed gambling sites remain widely accessible, increasing the risk of gambling harm. Many individuals struggling with gambling addiction need simple, effective tools to block access to gambling websites and apps - and language shouldn’t be an obstacle.By introducing Norwegian, Gamban is making self-exclusion more intuitive and accessible for people across Norway.“Gamban has long standing partnerships in place with key organisations in Norway. Having a Norwegian version of Gamban seemed like a natural next step towards making the product more accessible in the country”. James Forman - Account Executive at Gamban <h3>Gamban Partnerships  </h3>In Norway, Gamban has Partnerships with Norsk Tipping, Spillavhengighet Norge, Hjelpelinjen,  Blå Kors Norge and Rikstoto. Through these organisations fully paid for Gamban licences are available to all Norwegian residents. “Having offered Gamban free of charge to all our customers for many years, we’re now delighted to be able to offer this important resource in Norwegian. Making it even easier for all of our customers to block all known gambling sites when they self-exclude from our platform”. Per Einar Karlsen - Senior RG Advisor at Norsk Tipping“We are very happy that information about Gamban is now also available in Norwegian. Our service users often use Gamban and now the protection is even more accessible”. Magnus Pedersen - Political Advisor for Spillavhengighet Norge"We often get feedback from our participants that Gamban is a good tool to limit access to gambling websites. We are happy that it is now also available in Norwegian for even greater ease of use." Mona Finstad - Therapist at Blå Kors Norge<h3>Expanding Our Reach</h3>Gamban is now available in seven languages: English, French, Spanish, Dutch, Brazilian Portuguese, Finnish, and Norwegian. This expansion strengthens our ability to support individuals worldwide, ensuring that help is always available, no matter where you are or what language you speak.<h3>How to Access Gamban in Norwegian</h3>If you already use Gamban, simply update your app to access the Norwegian language option. If you’re new to Gamban, downloading the app is quick and easy - visit our website or app store page to get started today.Whether you’re taking the first step or reinforcing your commitment to recovery, Gamban is here to help.

Gamban Now Available in Norwegian!

Gamban is now available in Norwegian, helping people across Norway block gambling sites in their native language and take back control.

Understanding the Retail Trading Ecosystem

While most understand that gambling means the house always wins, it’s less known that 90% of retail traders fail to be profitable on a yearly basis. According to <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.investopedia.com/articles/active-trading/030515/what-difference-between-institutional-traders-and-retail-traders.asp">Investopedia</a>, retail traders are “individuals who buy or sell securities with money from personal wealth, rather than for an institution”.The reality is the retail trading infrastructure is set up for people to fail. Self-described trading educators and charlatan “brokers” are in fact collecting large profits derived from retail trader losses.In this blog we’ll explore how this happens, who is profiting, and how similar these practices are to those of online gambling affiliates.<h3 class="thin">Who’s profiting?</h3>Charlatan “trading educators” have found it highly lucrative to sell online courses, teaching consumers terrible trading strategies, which if followed, will result in people trading their accounts to zero.Trading educators often have no knowledge of professional trading. Typically their experience is in digital marketing, which enables them to sell their courses. You will almost certainly spot lifestyle messaging in their promotional content. For example, “Follow these steps and you will own a car like mine”. In fact, most of these individuals don’t own these cars, they simply rent them to pretend on social media. Similarly, posts that show them “travelling” by private jet are always staged, utilising <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.scouty.com/location/vip-private-jet-for-filming-photography--influencer-shoots-601876a9fcba4300178dedc3">promotional shoot locations</a>. <h3 class="thin">If they’re bad at trading, how do the educators  end up making a profit?</h3>In every country where there is financial regulation, licensed brokers are required by their regulator to have an ‘Introducing Broker’ (‘IB’) agreement in place. This is an agreement between any individual or company that ‘introduces’ individuals to their trading platform.There are jurisdictions where anyone can become an Introducing Broker, without any special certification. Although some markets, such as Australia, South Africa and the United States require some certification for Introducing Brokers.These IB agreements typically include payments for the educator based on the size and frequency of an introduced client’s trading activity, such as spread and commission on trades.Outside of the United States, IB Agreements rebate “educators” between 20-50% of the spread + commission paid by an introduced individual to the trading platform, back to the “educator”.A minority of IB Agreements also rebate the “educator” a percentage of any finance charges paid by the client to the trading platform.This is clearly a huge conflict of interest. The “educators” are incentivized to encourage overtrading and increased position size, as this generates them the most profits in payments from the trading platform.There are clear similarities between this and online gambling affiliates who generally make a percentage of a referred individuals’ losses to any gambling site, sometimes more than 50% of the total losses from that account in perpetuity.The rise of “Day Trading” and “Technical Analysis Courses” can in part be attributed to this conflict of interest amongst market participants. The strategies taught by false “educators” typically applies very rudimentary knowledge. Technical analysis, for example, involves following lines on a chart. Teaching people with a lack of financial education something they believe they can understand can feel empowering to them. But this opens the door to much greater risks.One reason gamblers may continue to gamble in the face of sustained losses is due to the illusion of control. Gamblers may persist in the belief that they have special skills or knowledge that enable them to gain an advantage, which convinces them to keep going. When reflecting on a gambling session, a gambler may focus on a particular moment that doesn’t threaten but instead supports their notion that they’re able to find patterns in random events. Similar mechanisms are in play when it comes to trading and following lines on charts.“Technical Analysis” may form a small part of an overall system that a professional trader would employ, but it wouldn’t be enough to warrant making a trade on its own.Professional traders do not typically “Day Trade”, except in certain market conditions. “Day Trading” is normally carried out by algorithms trading several times per second and even these tend to become obsolete relatively quickly or “machined out”. This is the process whereby the algorithm stops working effectively due to market forces. Gary Stevenson, a former professional trader for Citibank, <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/the-new-middle-class-gambling-addicts-how-day-trading-is-ruining-lives-wm5nbjwdm">told The Times</a>: “I was one of the most successful and best-paid traders in the world and I don’t day trade. It’s roulette.”“The people at home think they are the Wolf of Wall Street. But traders in the City are, in general, not taking bets on the short-term future of the market because there’s no way you can predict the movement. It’s impossible.”Note: In the US, an “educator” cannot receive a percentage rebate unless they are fully regulated as a broker, however nonregulated educators can receive flat payments for client introductions to the broker. These payments can be significant, and the broker is only willing to pay them due to the huge amounts of money they are making from loss-making traders.<h3 class="thin">Did you know?</h3>Since September 2021, Gamban’s blocking software has blocked access to all known “Trading Platforms”, including “Crypto” trading and “Non-Fungible Tokens” (NFT) trading platforms. Many individuals that are trading and losing money after having followed an online course are not aware that they are gambling.Our co-founder Matt Zarb-Cousin spoke to Gary Stevenson about the difference between investing strategies and speculating, and how new forms of gambling have emerged that masquerade as financial products. <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://youtu.be/hK2VyOGb6CI?si=YpO32sOu-n_wkcKT">The full video is here</a>.Are you able to help a friend or loved one who may be affected by this? Always speak with a professional. If you’re in the UK, you can speak with the National Gambling Helpline for free and confidential advice.For resources available in your region please check out <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://gamban.com/help">our get help page</a>.

Why Retail Traders don’t know that they’re Gambling

Industry Leading Software Now in Spanish

The Gamban App Has Now Been Translated into Spanish

Our software <a href="https://gamban.com/blog/what-is-gamban">Gamban</a>, which <a href="https://gamban.com/blog/what-is-gambling-blocking-software">blocks access</a> to online gambling sites and apps across all of a person’s devices, is now available in Spanish and can be downloaded across all Spanish speaking countries.This comes at a time when the Spanish Comisión Nacional de los Mercados y la Competencia (CNMC) has offered support towards new governmental regulation aimed at achieving safer gambling in the country.In the UK, Gamban works with the self-exclusion scheme GAMSTOP, and the leading treatment provider GamCare, giving those experiencing harm from gambling access to their software for free through <a href="TalkBanStop.com">TalkBanStop.com</a>. In the US, the company provides its software to leading gambling companies, Fanduel, Unibet, and more.Gamban also struck a partnership with Norway’s government-owned national lottery and gaming operator, Norsk Tipping, to provide its software for free to those who self-exclude.Jack Symons, CEO of Gamban, said: <blockquote>“Spanish has the second largest population of native speakers in the world, so this is a really important step in ensuring blocking software is accessible to as many people harmed by gambling as possible.</blockquote><blockquote>“We’ve gone from strength to strength since we launched in 2015, setting the standard in gambling blocking software. Gamban’s used by thousands of people worldwide, and we’ve received an overwhelming amount of positive feedback, with some users informing the team that it has literally saved their life. Taking the first step continues to be the hardest challenge and much of our time goes into making Gamban as simple and straightforward to install as possible.”</blockquote>In 2018 <a href="https://gamban.com/es/blog/self-exclusion-as-a-part-of-treatment-and-recovery">GambleAware commissioned independent research </a>to evaluate the effectiveness of blocking software and to compare existing products. Gamban emerged as the most effective and, as a result, Gamban has been provided free of charge through all Gamcare support networks in the UK.In 2018, Gamban was awarded Software Rising Star Award at the EGR B2B Awards and in 2019, Gamban won RegTech Provider of the Year at The GamblingCompliance Global Regulatory Awards.Gamban is designed to be a first step towards recovery from addiction, blocking thousands of gambling websites and apps globally. It is designed to be as difficult to remove as possible but promotes a <a href="https://gamban.com/es/blog/belts-and-braces-why-more-than-one-tool-can-be-helpful">layered approach</a> to assist with gambling cessation. In the UK, Gamban has partnered with GAMSTOP - the national self-exclusion register - and GamCare, the leading treatment provider, forming the TalkBanStop pilot. This has made Gamban available at no cost to anyone from the UK.Gamban is not intended to be a standalone solution and the team continues to work extensively to connect schemes, tools and initiatives, ensuring that recovery from gambling addiction is both possible and achievable.

Gamban’s Gambling Blocking Software Now Available Across Spanish Speaking Markets

Our software Gamban is now available in Spanish and can be downloaded across all Spanish speaking countries.

Covid-19 Has Introduced Drastic Changes in Online and I Feel That the Regulators Should Be More Pro-active

Stephen Aupy VP of Strategic Partnerships at Gamban, speaks to Gambling.Re on the remote gambling world from a safer gambling perspective.

<h2>The remote gambling sector, like the rest of the world, is undergoing major change. </h2>As we are all trying to navigate around this uncharted climate, my current trail of thought regarding gambling addiction is that, whether in lockdown or isolation, players may very well find themselves vulnerable to online gambling.I would expect that more people are likely to present via remote treatment resources and helplines. Given the circumstances, safer gambling is even more critical to what regulators and operators in various markets do during this testing time.I feel that the industry needs to increase efforts on educating more of the public about the risks associated with online gambling and to promote safer gambling solutions. It is remarkably interesting to see what the interplay between land-based and online casino looks like during COVID-19. According to the findings of a survey carried out by Clean up Gambling in the UK, <blockquote>“The absence of opportunities to bet on sports indicates that they are resorting to online casino games and slot machines, which carry higher rates of addiction. Even among casual gamblers, more than half of respondents said they had sustained or increased their level of gambling”</blockquote><h2>“The rise of e-sports betting is becoming of great interest.”</h2>I have been following various markets and am finding the rise of wagering on e-sports to be of significant interest. Due to the lockdown of sporting events, we are seeing e-sports becoming fast-tracked for wagering in multiple markets. It is my opinion that the links between gaming and gambling will most certainly make for a Molotov of problematic behaviours that will attract the next generation of gamblers.On the other hand, we are hearing about how different regulators are stopping or limiting the amount of marketing that operators are sending to their customers during the COVID-19 pandemic.Unfortunately, I feel that these measures alone are still not efficient enough keeping an actual safer gambling perspective. COVID-19 has introduced drastic changes in online and I feel that the regulators should be more pro-active on addressing operators to ensure that compulsive online gambling doesn’t spike in society for their jurisdiction.I would like to see the regulators from various markets start to take the potential rise of problem gambling more seriously and start to underpin self-exclusion through the use of blocking software to really combat the issue.

Responsible Gambling during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Providing Norwegian Players with Gamban

Norsk Tipping Is Now Offering Gamban to Their Players to Block Themselves from Accessing Online Gambling Websites and Apps in the Country.   

We are extremely proud to announce that Norway’s Norsk Tipping has chosen Gamban to provide its users with gambling blocking software. The move will support people who have chosen to self-exclude in Norway by blocking unlicensed sites on a user’s devices.<blockquote>"It is our pleasure to work with Norsk Tipping to supplement their own self-exclusion process adding a new dimension of protection against the unregulated market. One of the most effective methods of excluding from regulated &amp; unregulated gambling sites is by blocking access at a device level. We hope to see a global adoption of blocking software into various market frameworks through a layered approach to self-exclusion." Stephen Aupy - VP Strategic Partnerships</blockquote>The state-owned Norsk Tipping is the only legal way Norwegians can access regulated lotteries and online gaming, and now the company will provide Gamban software to supplement the self-exclusion registry of the country. Gamban will also block users’ access to offshore operators (online casinos in other countries) which are not regulated or licenced for use in Norway.<blockquote>“Gamban’s software enables us to offer extended protection to customers wishing to block access to the black market. We are working on a series of extended responsible gambling measures within our jurisdiction. Gamban’s software will be a valuable supplement to our own systems.” Bjørn Helge Hoffmann -Norsk Tipping chief RG officer</blockquote>According to a survey conducted by the University of Bergen, 55,000, or 1.4% of the population, were classified as problem players in Norway, while a further 122,000, or 3.1% of the population, were classified as moderately at risk of developing a gambling problem.The study said the rise in problem gambling rates may be due to more people now participating in gambling, increased advertising exposure and advertising influence, as well as the fact that games are more accessible on the internet than ever before.

Gamban Partners with Norsk Tipping

Norsk Tipping Is Now Offering Gamban to Their Players to Block Themselves from Accessing Online Gambling Websites and Apps in the Country.

Highlighting the Importance of a Multi-Layered Approach to Self-Exclusion

Author: Patroklos Androulakis-Korakakis, Research Officer, Gamban

The UK Online Gambling ‘Self-Exclusion Puzzle’: Putting the Pieces Together

Highlighting the Importance of a Multi-Layered Approach to Self-Exclusion From Online Gambling

Take Part in a University of Sydney Research Study 

We’re inviting our users to take part in a research study run by the University of Sydney. The study explores how people experience Gamban and looks for ways to improve gambling blocking software as a harm minimisation tool.<h3>Who can take part?</h3>You can take part if you:<ul><li>are at least 18 years old</li><li>currently use Gamban</li><li>can read and understand English</li></ul><h3>What’s involved?</h3>You’ll complete an online survey about your experience using Gamban, as well as some background questions. It takes about 20 minutes.At the end, you’ll see your Gambling Recovery Score, along with a short explanation of what it means.<h3>How to join</h3>If you’d like to take part, simply click this link to start the survey:<a class="btn btn-primary" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://sydney.au1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0cZ3OFUHQECZs4C" role="button">Start the survey</a> <h3>Questions?</h3>If you have any questions about the study, you can contact:Dr Dilushi ChandrakumarFaculty of Science, School of PsychologyThe University of SydneyEmail: dilushi.chandrakumar@sydney.edu.au<h3>Important details</h3><ul><li>The study has been approved by the University’s Human Research Ethics Committee [2025_HE000601].</li><li>Taking part is completely voluntary, and you can stop at any time before submitting your answers.</li><li>All your answers will be kept anonymous and securely stored.</li></ul>Thank you for helping to improve tools like Gamban for everyone.

Share Your Experience With Gamban 

Join a short interview and help improve support for those in gambling recovery

<h4>Help Improve Financial Recovery Tools</h4>GaimControl is conducting research to better understand the financial challenges faced during gambling recovery. They are inviting individuals with lived experience to take part in a short interview, with a £25 Amazon voucher offered as a thank you for your time.By taking part in a short interview, you will have the opportunity to influence how future financial services and support tools are designed - helping make recovery easier and more sustainable for others.What to expect<ul><li>A one-off, 15-minute conversation over Zoom or phone</li><li>No preparation needed</li><li>Completely confidential and informal</li></ul>Interested?Email: contact@gaimcontrol.comWith the subject: Gamban InterviewsYou’ll receive a link to schedule your interview after registering your interest.Please note: GaimControl is organising this research independently. Gamban is sharing this opportunity.

Help Shape Financial Recovery and Get a £25 Voucher

Gamban users are invited to a 15-minute GaimControl interview to help shape better financial tools for recovery. £25 Amazon voucher for participants.

New partnership provides PFA NI members free access to Gamban's blocking software

We’re excited to announce that we’ve partnered with the Professional Footballers’ Association of Northern Ireland (PFA NI) to support professional footballers in tackling gambling-related harm.Through this partnership, we’re providing PFA NI members with free access to our industry-leading technology, which blocks access to gambling websites and apps across multiple devices. By offering this service, we aim to help protect players from the risks of gambling addiction and give them the tools they need to take control of their well-being.Melissa Etherington, Partnerships Executive at Gamban, said:  “Gambling addiction is a growing issue in football, which impacts mental health, finances, and a player’s performance on the pitch. It also has the potential to impact sports integrity. We are delighted to partner with PFA NI to raise awareness of Gamban among those most at risk from harms related to online gambling.”Michael Carvill, CEO of PFA NI, said:  “As the representative body for professional footballers in Northern Ireland, we are committed to supporting our members both on and off the pitch. Gambling addiction is a growing concern within football, and this partnership with Gamban is a significant step in providing practical help to those who need it.”At Gamban, we’re committed to working with organisations to reduce gambling harm and support those affected. This partnership with PFA NI is a key part of our mission to make a positive impact in the world of professional football.

Announcements

Gamban Now Available in Norwegian!

Why Retail Traders don’t know that they’re Gambling

Gamban’s Gambling Blocking Software Now Available Across Spanish Speaking Markets

Responsible Gambling during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Gamban Partners with Norsk Tipping

The UK Online Gambling ‘Self-Exclusion Puzzle’: Putting the Pieces Together

Help Shape Financial Recovery and Get a £25 Voucher

PFA NI Partners with Gamban

Protect ALL Of Your Devices

Announcements

List of Articles

Gamban Now Available in Norwegian!

Why Retail Traders don’t know that they’re Gambling

Gamban’s Gambling Blocking Software Now Available Across Spanish Speaking Markets

Responsible Gambling during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Gamban Partners with Norsk Tipping

The UK Online Gambling ‘Self-Exclusion Puzzle’: Putting the Pieces Together

Share Your Experience With Gamban

Help Shape Financial Recovery and Get a £25 Voucher

PFA NI Partners with Gamban

Protect ALL Of Your Devices

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