Irish Online Gamblers - A High Risk for Mortgages

March 05, 2009 | News Category: Online Casinos

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Online casino gambling is often blamed for many problems. Irish online casino players have recently found themselves with new problems to deal with, which financial institutions are blaming on their online gambling. Potential Irish homeowners have found that their choice of how to spend their leisure time, if it is at an online casino, can reduce their ability to own their own homes.

According to the Independent Mortgage Advisers Federation (IMAF), those seeking mortgages may find themselves eligible for smaller sums, or even possibly rejected should they gamble in online casinos. The Independent Mortgage Advisers Federation claimed that lending institutions are taking the potential borrower's lifestyle into account when they make the decision to approve a loan.

There are a number of expenditures and choices that can tip the scales negatively in the approval process for mortgages and other loans. Online casino gambling is one of the expenditures that is now factored into the decision making process.

IMAF spokesperson, Michael Dowling, told the Irish Times that if a player is gambling online on a regular basis, for example, if they are spending around 150 euros a month, the lending bank will take that amount into account when they are working out the gross income of the applicant. Mr Dowling explains that the amount spent on regular online gambling will be deducted from the gross income, which in effect "does reduce the amount of money you can borrow."

There are those of the opinion that the amount an applicant spends on entertainment that is deducted from their gross income should be applied equally for all entertainment costs, including dinging out, other socializing and any other leisure activities. It seems that someone who spends much of their money on drink will have more chance of receiving a loan than a responsible Internet gambler would.

"Discriminating against Internet gamblers seems a most random choice, and the beginning of a slippery slope," said Harvey Paulding, who is an expert on mortgage markets. He continued that "Certainly banks want this information, but they also want drinking habits, sexual preferences, and such, and won't get those."

It seems that this is simply another arbitrary reason to discriminate against Internet casino gamblers with no real basis in reality. Of course, someone who has a gambling problem, and has shown that they cannot cover their debts, should be treated quite differently to someone who sets aside entertainment money and chooses to use it to play in online casinos.