Greater Support for Gamblers and other POLi service customers
We recognise that some of our customers may require assistance in managing their gaming or gambling spending and we are here to help.
If you a POLi™ service customer and you would like us to ‘block’ your access to our service for a 6-month period, you can do so by sending a request to risk@polipayments.com and our team will consider your request.
Please note that we may ask you (or such persons requesting on your behalf such as your financial counsellor or other authorised representative) for copies of any supporting identity documents before we accept and process any block request. We will generally action your request (subject to being satisfied with the identification verification process) within 24 hours on business days, and otherwise as soon as practicable.
It's important to note that:
The block will mean that you will not be able to access POLi transactions at all for the period that the block is applied and is not just a restriction to gambling transactions.
If we ‘block’ your access to the POLi™ service, it does not have any impact on your ability to log in to your bank account directly via your financial institution’s banking website or app and making transactions to anyone from that account, but it does mean that no fund transfer will be facilitated by the POLi™ service (i.e., when you make an online purchase via a merchant’s website that uses the POLi™ service as a payment option) while the block is effective.
The ‘block’ to your POLi™ service does not put gambling blocks on your credit and/or debit cards as our service relates to account-to-account transfers only, so you should consider contacting your financial institution directly if you wish to also block your credit and/or debit cards.
Any gambling or similar ‘block’ placed on your credit and/or debit card through your financial institution will not block transactions being made using the POLi™ service, or other account to account transaction.
If you have more than one bank account held with a financial institution that you wish for POLi™ to block, you must specify at the time of request which of the accounts (or all accounts) are to be included for the purposes of POLi blocking your use of the POLi™ service.
We are not currently able to block payments made through POLi™ using the PayID payment method, though we are working on a solution to resolve this. Our initial rollout of this service will be limited to non-gambling merchants.
If after the 6-month block period you request for us to unblock your access to the POLi™ service, it is at our discretion to allow for this and if so, we may ask for additional supporting documentation to be provided by you or your representative(s) (e.g., written approval from your financial counsellor where appropriate).
What other support is available?
If you need to talk to someone about gambling, Gambling Help Online offers free, private assistance to everyone who is affected by gambling. Visit gamblinghelponline.org.au to talk to a counsellor online. Call the Gambler's Helpline at 1800 858 858 to speak with a counsellor.
