Supporting Members Through Safer Gambling Week: ABCUL Meets Gaimcontrol

Friday 21 November 2025

As part of Safer Gambling Week, ABCUL sat down with Gaimcontrol, the team behind the wellbeing app Toivo, to explore how credit unions can support members who may be affected by gambling harms.

Toivo is a simple, easy-to-use app created by former gamblers together with psychologists and neuroscientists. It offers short daily tools to help people build confidence, regain control and develop healthier habits — all of which can make a real difference for someone trying to reduce or stop harmful gambling.

With many credit unions regularly supporting members in financial stress, accessible resources like Toivo can provide early help before problems escalate. To continue this conversation, ABCUL will also be hosting a member-exclusive webinar on Monday 9 December, where Gaimcontrol will introduce the app, share insight from their research, and discuss how credit unions can use this tool to support members.

Below, we hear from Jean-Paul Efang Mbome, founder of Gaimcontrol, about the story behind Toivo, why Safer Gambling Week matters, and the role credit unions can play in supporting safer gambling.

Can you introduce yourself and tell us a little about Gaimcontrol and how the app came to be?

My name is Jean-Paul Efang Mbome, and I founded Gaimcontrol after more than a decade working in the UK credit sector while personally struggling with online gambling addiction. After trying several times to quit, I found there was no support that really met me where I was or reflected the realities of recovery in a digital world.

That experience led to the creation of Toivo — originally designed as a personalised wellbeing tool informed by psychology, and now developed into a wider platform that also supports the financial side of recovery, which is often just as critical as the emotional side.

What inspired the team — former gamblers, neuroscientists and psychologists — to build this app?

Gaimcontrol is built on two foundations: lived experience and scientific expertise.
My own recovery journey, plus the experience of more than 20,000 people in online support groups I manage, has shaped every part of the design.

Alongside this, we work with specialists in psychology, neuroscience and financial wellbeing. Our shared frustration is that while gambling products have become highly personalised and accessible, recovery tools have not kept pace. We want to close that gap and create tools that genuinely meet people’s needs — and support the financial providers who also care about good outcomes.

Why is Safer Gambling Week important in the UK and Ireland?

Any effort that encourages conversations about gambling harm is valuable. It’s still a subject many people avoid, even though the impact can be severe. Safer Gambling Week gives a national platform to highlight risks and signpost help.

The narrative is also changing. Gambling is now recognised as a contributing factor in suicide among men under 40, and the links with mental health, neurodivergence and financial abuse are becoming clearer. This week helps broaden that understanding and encourages people to seek support earlier.

How does Toivo work in practice?

There’s a big imbalance between the technology used by gambling operators and the tools available for recovery. Operators use advanced personalisation and behavioural design, while recovery tools historically have not.

Toivo helps close that gap by combining:

• AI-powered personalised guidance
• Neuroscience-based games that strengthen impulse control
• Machine learning to identify early signs of relapse

All features draw on proven psychological and neuroscience principles and are designed to support small, achievable steps toward recovery.

Why are credit unions a natural partner in supporting members affected by gambling harms?

Gambling harm is recognised as a financial vulnerability under FCA Consumer Duty, and poor outcomes help no one.

Credit unions, as member-owned organisations, are well placed to promote both financial and personal wellbeing. By partnering with Gaimcontrol, they can support vulnerable members at scale, reduce hardship and help people rebuild long-term financial stability. Members of partner credit unions can access the app free of charge, and it is available on all major smartphones and tablets.

Members registering on the app can:

• regain control over gambling impulses
• access support privately and without stigma
• avoid high-cost credit or unsafe borrowing
• reduce the likelihood of long insolvency processes

Financial institutions often have clearer visibility of gambling behaviour than anyone else — sometimes even clearer than the individual themselves. With that visibility comes an opportunity to support early detection and intervention.

By working with organisations like Gaimcontrol, credit unions can help reduce harm, improve long-term financial health and strengthen their communities.

Join the ABCUL Member Webinar

To explore this further, ABCUL will host a webinar with Gaimcontrol on Tuesday 9 December from 12.30–1.30pm.

Register for the webinar here.