Gamblers who spend more than £1,000 online in a single day will be forced to undergo a financial risk assessment, the Gambling Commission has announced – a move the industry warns could drive customers to the black market.
The regulator said the threshold would also apply to anyone spending over £3,000 in a rolling 90-day period, with lower limits for under-25s. The checks will be based on data held by credit reference agencies, but the commission insisted they were not “affordability checks”, which acting chief executive Sarah Gardner said were “deeply unpopular” with gamblers.
“Gamblers spending over £1,000 online in 24 hours face financial risk assessments, with phased rollout from summer.”
The Betting and Gaming Council, which represents gambling firms, said it was “disappointed and frustrated” with the changes, warning they could push customers towards unregulated operators. The commission acknowledged that stakeholders had raised concerns about problem gamblers migrating to the black market.
The new rules will be introduced in a “very careful, staged way”, with no fixed timeline. The first phase, rolling out this summer, will apply only to over-25s who gamble more than £5,000 in a 24-hour period and only to the largest gambling companies. The Gambling Commission said this initial stage would affect less than 0.5% of customers. The threshold will eventually be lowered to £1,000 in 24 hours, or £750 for under-25s.
The regulator cited evidence that high-spending customers were experiencing financial difficulties but were not being identified or supported by bookmakers. It said high-spending gamblers were between two and four times more likely to have a debt management plan, and between two and five times more likely to have a default in the previous 12 months, than the wider population.
The announcement follows a 2023 white paper on gambling that recommended enhanced checks on customers experiencing very high losses. The Gambling Survey for Great Britain found that in 2024, 9.3% of adults who gambled online – excluding lottery players – scored eight or more on the Problem Gambling Severity Index, a scale that goes up to 27 and indicates a person “may have lost control of their behaviour”.
Gardner said the vast majority of customers would never need an assessment, and those who did would undergo a “frictionless, document-free” check by credit reference agencies, with no impact on their credit score. “We believe this approach will enable support for high-spending customers in financial difficulties, while reducing friction for customers who are not,” she said.