UK to tighten checks on online gamblers

The UK Gambling Commission will introduce Financial Risk Assessments for high-spending online gambling customers in a phased programme, beginning with the country’s largest operators. The staged implementation is designed to focus first on very high and unusual spending patterns, before moving to wider thresholds once systems are established.

In the initial stage, the regime will target very high 24-hour net-deposit patterns for those major operators. For most customers, that will typically mean a £5,000 net deposit within a rolling 24-hour period. For consumers under the age of 25, the stage-one 24-hour trigger is set at £2,500.

When fully implemented, the Financial Risk Assessments will apply at lower, standardised thresholds. Customers aged 25 or over will be subject to an FRA if their net deposits exceed £1,000 in a rolling 24-hour period, or £3,000 over a rolling 90-day period.

For customers under 25, the final limits will be lower. Triggers will be set at £750 in a rolling 24-hour period and £2,000 in a rolling 90-day period. These age-based thresholds are intended to define which accounts qualify as high-spending for the purposes of the new checks.

The Commission plans to use data from credit reference agencies to carry out the Financial Risk Assessments. The regulator describes the process as a largely frictionless, document-free assessment that should not require customers to supply extra paperwork in most cases.

The regulator also states that these checks will not affect customers’ credit scores. It is not presenting FRAs as broad affordability checks, but as targeted assessments applied only to accounts that cross the specified deposit thresholds.

Pilot work suggested that around 97% of customer accounts crossing the FRA thresholds could be assessed automatically using this approach. The Commission estimates that less than 3% of accounts would receive any form of assessment, and that fewer than 1 in 1,000 accounts would need a non-automatic process.

The rollout will be guided by implementation groups that will help determine the detailed timetable after engagement over the summer. The phased approach is intended to bring the largest operators into the regime first before extending it more broadly.

During the early stages of implementation, the Gambling Commission has said it will not take enforcement action where an operator has failed to act following a Financial Risk Assessment. However, operators will continue to be bound by their wider licensing obligations throughout the period.

Industry bodies have reacted critically to the introduction of Financial Risk Assessments. The Betting and Gaming Council described itself as “deeply disappointed and frustrated” by the decision.

Critics have raised concerns about the reliability of the underlying data used in the checks and have warned that the measures could encourage some customers to move to the illegal market. These objections set the backdrop for the Commission’s planned engagement with stakeholders as the regime is phased in.