Andrew Rhodes, CEO of the Gambling Commission, has explained the proposed financial checks that could be implemented following the UK Government’s Gambling Act Review White Paper.
August saw the first official consultations for the proposed financial checks, which will continue for a further six weeks into October.
If the player spending is considered moderate, marked at a £125 ($156) loss within a 30-day period, then publicly available data will be used to conduct a light touch financial vulnerability check.
However, should the player lose either £1,000 in 24 hours or £2,000 in 90 days, then a full financial risk assessment will be conducted.
These would have no effect on the user’s credit score, and should no risk be identified, the customer will be allowed to continue using the operator as normal.
It’s estimated that 20 percent of accounts will undergo light touch financial checks, while three percent will have a financial risk assessment undertaken by a credit reference agency.
Rhodes emphasised in a recent blog post that these checks would only be viable for users of online gambling sites, and as such they would not be implemented in retail betting shops nor at racetracks.
Another major concern for a lot of people on hearing these supposed financial checks would be the availability of their banking information to different organisations.
However, Rhodes stated that no gambling companies would have direct access to a user’s bank details or records.
There were also a number of questions surrounding the different facets of gambling, such as losing periods, slots and what exactly would trigger a check.
In the blog post, Rhodes explained: “The thresholds we propose for checks represent a highly unusual period of loss, even among those who have a long history of gambling.
“Even when a check is triggered, the operator would then consider the results alongside all the information they know about the customer, such as their previous gambling history, in determining what if any action would be appropriate for them to take.
“If the customer was playing with winnings, outside of the immediately preceding period, this would be taken into account by the operator in their consideration of potential action.”
This announcement comes after another recent post from Rhodes, where the Gambling Commission highlighted statistics misuse by the media in an open letter.
