High-spending online gamblers to face financial risk checks

The Gambling Commission has announced that online gamblers who spend more than £1,000 in a 24-hour window, or over £3,000 in a 90-day period, will be subject to financial risk assessments. Under-25s will face lower thresholds. The regulator insists these are not "affordability checks" but rather assessments based on credit reference data to help operators identify gamblers at risk of financial harm or difficulty. The changes will be introduced in a "very careful, staged way," starting with over-25s who gamble more than £5,000 in a 24-hour period—affecting less than 0.5% of customers. The threshold will eventually be lowered to £1,000 in 24 hours. The commission's acting chief executive, Sarah Gardner, stated that the vast majority of customers would never require an assessment, and those who do will have a frictionless, document-free process with no impact on their credit score. Stakeholders have expressed concerns that more regulation could push problem gamblers onto the black market.