Following on from consultation feedback, the UK Gambling Commission has announced they will run a pilot scheme for enhanced tier checks that are being proposed by the government ahead of the ongoing affordability debate.
This latest development comes in the week before the big Westminster Hall debate, which is on Monday 26th February, and due to a 100k+ signed petition against these controversial checks.
But prior to this, the Gambling Commission’s executive Tim Miller revealed via a blog post on their main website that there is an update on the levels they describe as ‘financial risk checks’, which were part of the government’s gambling while paper in 2023.
This update stated that lower end gamblers would be subjected to net spend checks of £125 over a 30-day period, or £500 over a year.
Miller went onto say that following on from the feedback obtained via the consultation this tiered level of checks wouldn’t require bookmakers to take into account other personal details, such as job titles or the postcode they live in.
“To ease the introduction of these checks they will initially come into force at a higher threshold for a short period of time, before reverting to a lower threshold later in the year to smooth implementation for consumers.”
Losses Of £1,000 Over 24 Hours Will Trigger A Check
Moving onto the second tier of financial risk checks and these are expected to come into play if a customer racks up a net loss of £1,000+ over a 24-hour period or £2,000 over 90 days. If so, there would be more checks of a customer’s finances.
However, in response to this, the UK government has stated these checks would be fluid, but it remains to be seen how this smooth approach will play out.
Tim Miller added – “for the vast majority of customers who undergo them”, added the commission agreed with consultation responses supporting a pilot of such a scheme, adding it would “enable us to test the details of data-sharing in practice, working with credit reference agencies and gambling businesses”.
This pilot is set to run for around 4-6 months and bookmakers and online gambling sites aren’t expected during this period to take action or implement safety measures that are already in place.
Miller went onto say: “We will continue to gather data which will inform the final thresholds and definitions of loss or spend for implementation following the pilot period.”
In addition to these tiered checks the UK government has also announced that from September they will bring in maximum stakes for UK online slots players between 18-24. With limits for this age bracket set at £2 a spin, with this increased to £5 a spin for the 25 and overs.
Check out Instant Withdrawal Casinos for the latest updates on affordability checks in the gambling industry.
