Are Affordability Checks Protecting Bettors?

The catch that continually crops up throughout the debates, every open letter, and every industry survey carried out: how is it becoming apparent that affordability checks are simply going to drive punters into the hands of unlicensed and unregulated providers? And that helps no one.

A Legitimate Goal, But Poor Execution

Financial vulnerability checks were applied to net deposit amounts for people gambling over £500 in a 30-day rolling period starting in August 2024, before the thresholds were reduced in February 2025 to £150 ^[1]. These checks are carried out using publicly available information, not credit reference agency data, to intercept financially vulnerable customers.Fair enough.

Here, though, there seems to be a gulf between theory and reality. A YouGov poll commissioned by the Betting and Gaming Council finds that 65% of UK bettors will refuse to provide their payslip and bank statement details to continue betting ^[2]. It’s hardly a minority; two-thirds of clients are rejecting the proposal.

When people believe their privacy is being infringed upon, they do not immediately act more responsibly. They go elsewhere.

The Black Market is Already There, Waiting

I have seen it play out in other regulated markets before: increase the barrier to entry enough, and users will seek out the easiest path, even if it leads to peril. The Betting and Gaming Council figures suggest that at the Cheltenham Festival alone, £60 million was bet with unregulated operators. That money being bet outside of a regulated market indicates no affordability checks, no self-exclusion, no control or ability to seek a remedy.

The chief executive of the BGC, Grainne Hurst, bluntly said: "Requiring punters to give bank statements is not 'frictionless'; it's intrusive and will push customers to the illegal market where there are no controls whatsoever". 

She's correct, and the 2023 Gambling White Paper ^[3] predicted this, stating that many customers may not consent to providing payslips or bank statements for checks and therefore gamble on alternative sites, such as unregulated ones. ^[4]

What the Horse Racing Industry Knows?

For a number of years, the British Horseracing Authority has been issuing this warning. In an open letter to the Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy, a warning was issued that "unprecedented state intervention into the private lives of citizens would 'utterly destroy' the sport". ^[5] This would be a considerable loss to miss out on a number of bets, not just due to a lack of levies, but also media rights income, media revenue, and sponsorship revenue, which will allow the courses to remain profitable and provide stable employment.

Over 100,000 people signed a petition to scrap the "affordability check" in 2024, which subsequently forced a Westminster Hall debate. That's not the kind of volume that gets generated for no reason at all.