Online gambling is becoming one of the biggest past-times but articles in the media this weekend suggest that banks are frowning on gamblers and scrutinising bank statements to see if they make deposits to online gambling sites before making lending decisions. It is no secret that risk of problem gambling is significantly higher when compared to land based gambling but is comes as a shock that financial institutions are taking such measures.

An article in The Irish Examiner this weekend claims that internet gambling is being used as a reason for declining mortgage applications or restructuring house loans by Irish banks. Banks are also looking at the levels of mobile phone bills, digital tv bills and tuition fees as other reasons to reject applications.

According to the chief executive of the mortgage debt advisory company Negotiate, Trevor Grant, gambling transactions listed on bank statements are often being used as a reason to reject a mortgage or restructuring application, regardless of any other financial information submitted and its strength.

"When a lender assesses an application for reduced mortgage repayments due to financial difficulty, the customer is required to submit a detailed application, often including current account and credit-card statements," claimed Grant.

"Lenders will form a view that if the customer is struggling to pay their mortgage they should be tightening their belts, and they consider gambling, for example, as a non-essential activity and therefore should be one of the first social indulgences to be cut," he added.

A spokesman for the Irish Banking Federation claimed that it was important for those looking to borrow money to carefully review all of their income and expenditure when making an application.

Clearly banks are not to keen to lend to customers that take part in online bingo, casino games or poker.