British Gambling Commission laments “misconceptions running wild” over financial risk checks
The Gambling Commission’s executive director says the debate on financial risk checks has grown more toxic.
UK.- Addressing the Ethical Gambling Forum at Flutter Entertainment’s Leeds headquarters, Tim Miller, Executive Director of the British Gambling Commission, dedicated a significant part of his remarks to defending the regulator’s exploration of financial risk assessments (FRAs). Amid continued industry criticism and a campaign from the racing sector, he insisted that the checks would be “frictionless for vast majority of customers”.
The checks were originally proposed in the Gambling Act review White Paper in April 2023 under the previous Conservative government. The Gambling Commission began a six‑month pilot in August 2024. The industry has repeatedly criticised the results of the pilot, arguing the checks were more intrusive than intended for many customers and that different credit agencies often returned very different results.
Speaking to industry representatives, Miller lamented that the debate had “managed to get more high-pitched – more toxic. He stressed that no decision has been made on whether the checks will be introduced but also argued that findings from the pilot provide “more evidence that makes clear the status quo can’t hold.”
He said: “We have found that there is a group of vulnerable customers that are not currently being identified by other approaches. Customers in the pilot cohort were between twice and four times more likely to have a debt management plan and between twice and five times more likely to have a default in the last 12 months than comparable consumers in the population. Some of these customers may be identified and supported by operators now, but too many of them are being missed.”
According to Miller, only a “very small proportion of active accounts” would require an assessment and be unable do so in a frictionless manner.
“The white paper expected around 0.6 per cent of active accounts would fall into this group. The pilot shows it would actually be 0.1 per cent,” he said. “So only one in a 1000 accounts would be unable to receive an assessment in a frictionless way. And even that number could be reduced further, by operators meeting their existing obligations at the start of the consumer relationship to ensure that customers’ details are correct and their identity had been appropriately verified.”
Miller also attempted to clarify what he described as “other misconceptions running wild“.
“The proposed thresholds for an assessment are not limits or caps on customer spend,” he said. “They are not ‘affordability checks’ by a different name – the checks we have been piloting will not even attempt to make an assessment of what each customer can afford to gamble. And lastly but maybe most importantly, there would be no need to require document checks following a financial risk assessment. In fact, if these checks are implemented it will allow us to give clear guidance to operators that they should not require consumers to provide documents to assess financial risk following a financial risk assessment.
“And to provide assurance to industry, our approach to compliance would also ensure that failing to request documents following a financial risk assessment would not be a reason for regulatory action. Indeed, to request financial documents in such circumstances would serve no legitimate regulatory purpose and consumers could rightly refuse to provide them.”
Miller said the Gambling Commission will be making recommendations on next steps to its board in the “near future”. He said: “Our Board will make the decisions on this and no one should be tempted to pre-judge that. Our Board will want to be satisfied that there is a strong evidence base for any next steps on financial risk checks and also satisfied that the Government’s public policy approach continues to support such a change.
“But if the decision is made to introduce these assessments, we will work closely with DCMS, the industry and credit reference agencies to establish an implementation group that will jointly develop the details of a sensible implementation plan and timetable. It will also help shape the guidance to operators to ensure that they take a proportionate approach to interacting with customers where financial risk is identified.”
