The UK Gambling Commission has said its pilot programme for financial risk assessments (FRAs) has delivered very encouraging results with significantly fewer customers expected to experience disruption than originally forecast under the government’s gambling reform plans.
In a blog post, the Commission’s Helen Rhodes, Director of Major Policy Projects and Evaluation, said the regulator's continued analysis of pilot data suggests the proposed checks could be introduced in a largely frictionless way for the overwhelming majority of high-spending online gamblers.
The checks, first proposed in the 2023 Gambling Act Review White Paper, are designed to identify customers who may be in serious financial difficulties and ensure they receive appropriate support.
Rhodes stressed that the proposed measures are not affordability checks and do not involve assessing how much an individual can afford to spend.
“There are no proposals or plans to introduce affordability checks,” she wrote in the blog post.
Instead, the assessments would automatically be triggered when spending reaches thresholds associated with the top 3% of online gambling customers. The purpose, she said, is to identify signs of current financial distress rather than impose spending caps.
Pilot Outperforms White Paper Numbers
According to the Commission, the pilot outperformed the assumptions set out in the White Paper.
The original government estimate suggested that 0.6% of active customer accounts could face friction during the assessment process. But the trial run found that the figure could be reduced to just 0.1%, or the equivalent of roughly one in every 1,000 accounts across the online casino sector.
Of the approximately 3% of active accounts that would trigger an assessment, Rhodes said 97% could be processed entirely behind the scenes, requiring no action from the customer. This is a substantial improvement on the White Paper’s projected 80% frictionless rate.
For consumers, this means that, in most cases, no documents, such as bank statements or payslips, need to be submitted.
Regulator Responds to Recent Criticism
Rhodes also used the update to address what she described as an “ill-informed or inaccurate” criticism surrounding the proposed checks. Recent commentary from the industry has suggested that financial risk assessments are already pushing players toward illegal gambling operators due to excessive friction.
The Commission rejected this claim, noting that the policy has not yet been implemented live and that no customer has had action taken as a result of an FRA.
Any current requests for documents by operators, Rhodes said, are likely linked to existing anti-money laundering (AML), commercial, or safer gambling checks rather than the proposed FRA system.
She also dismissed claims that the checks amount to hidden spending limits. Rhodes added that the thresholds for an assessment are not limits or caps on how much a customer can spend.
Objective is to Offer Support
A central theme of the Commission’s update is that the policy is intended to provide support rather than punitive intervention.
The regulator said customers identified as financially vulnerable should not automatically face account closures or blanket requests for documentation.
Instead, operators are expected to take proportionate steps such as offering deposit limits, reducing marketing exposure, or other responsible gambling interventions aimed at supporting sustainable play.
The Commission warned against “knee-jerk” responses that could unnecessarily push customers out of the licensed market and into unregulated gambling channels. With unlicensed platforms, there are almost no protections, which could worsen the situation for many players.
Pilot data also showed that customers in the tested cohort were between two and five times more likely to have recent defaults or debt management plans compared with the wider population, reinforcing the need for targeted protections.
Better ID Checks Are Needed
The regulator said one of the most significant lessons from the pilot information was that operators can improve frictionless outcomes by improving the existing identity and age verification procedures.
It found that issues such as allowing registrations under initials rather than full names, or using commercial addresses, can reduce match rates with credit reference agency data. That’s why the UKGC will provide further guidance on identity verification compliance, which will be published soon.
Next Steps
The Commission said findings from the pilot will soon be presented to the Gambling Commission Board, which will decide whether and how the checks should be introduced.
Rhodes emphasised that no decision has yet been made and that the regulator remains cautious about over-implementation. If approved, the UKGC said it would work closely with operators, credit reference agencies, and government stakeholders on a phased rollout and ongoing evaluation.
In addition to that, independent research body NatCen has been working with the Commission as an evaluation partner, and its reports are expected to be published alongside the regulator’s decision.
The Gambling Commission said any final framework would be subject to continued monitoring and could be adapted to ensure it remains both effective and minimally disruptive for consumers.
