The UK Gambling Commission has mounted a fresh defence of its planned Financial Risk Assessments, as debate over affordability checks continues to divide regulators, industry groups and consumer advocates. Speaking at the Ethical Gambling Forum on Tuesday, Tim Miller, the Commission’s Executive Director of Research and Policy, said the checks were designed to replace inconsistent and intrusive practices already used by some gambling firms.
“In 2026 it can’t be right that this still leads to some operators asking consumers to share bank statements and other financial documentation,” Miller said. “Such an approach is outdated, inconsistent and disproportionate.”
The comments come amid growing scrutiny of the regulator’s pilot scheme, which uses credit reference data to identify customers who may be in financial difficulty. Critics have questioned whether the process can truly be frictionless, while industry groups have warned that any perception of intrusive checks could drive gamblers away from licensed operators.
Miller rejected suggestions that the policy amounted to a cap on betting or a full affordability test.
“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.”
Regulator says pilot supports targeted checks
The Commission says its pilot found that fewer than 3 per cent of active customer accounts would trigger any action under the proposals. Of those, Miller said, 97 per cent would receive a frictionless assessment.
He also said only 0.1 per cent of active accounts would be unable to complete the process without friction, compared with the 0.6 per cent anticipated in the government’s 2023 White Paper.
“If anything, through the pilot for Financial Risk Assessments, we now have more evidence that makes clear the status quo can’t hold,” Miller said.
According to the Commission, customers included in the pilot cohort were significantly more likely than comparable consumers to have indicators of financial difficulty, including debt management plans and recent defaults.
Miller said the current system leaves too much discretion to operators and has failed to identify some vulnerable customers.
“Our casework found too many examples over too many years of operators not providing support for high spending customers who may be at financial risk,” he said.
The Commission has not yet made a final decision on implementation. Miller said recommendations would go to the regulator’s board “in the near future,” but insisted no outcome had been predetermined.
“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,” he said.
Industry fears black market shift
The regulator’s intervention follows weeks of renewed concern from the gambling sector. A YouGov survey for the Betting and Gaming Council found that 65 per cent of UK bettors did not want to share personal financial information with gambling companies.
Industry figures argue that even if the Commission’s checks are designed to operate in the background, public perception matters. If customers believe licensed firms are demanding financial information, they may seek out offshore sites that offer fewer safeguards and no UK oversight.
That concern has grown alongside evidence that unregulated operators are increasing their visibility in the UK. Recent figures from the Betting and Gaming Council suggested total gambling advertising spend is forecast to reach almost GBP 1.9bn (€2.18bn) by autumn 2026, with unregulated companies expanding rapidly while licensed firms cut back.
Miller acknowledged the wider pressure on the legal market, including tax changes announced in last year’s Budget and the risk that customers could be pushed towards illegal gambling. He said the Commission had received GBP 26m (€29.9m) over three years to strengthen its work against unlicensed operators.
In 2025-26, he said, the regulator issued 741 cease and desist notices to advertisers and operators, reported 397,527 URLs to search engines, and disrupted 1,134 websites.
Still, the affordability debate is likely to remain politically sensitive. The Commission argues that targeted checks could reduce reliance on document requests and improve protection for customers at risk. Opponents fear the policy could erode trust and weaken licensed operators at a time when unregulated firms are already gaining ground.
Miller said that if the checks are introduced, the regulator would work with government, industry and credit reference agencies on implementation.
“We are not shying away from this issue, far from it,” he said.
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