UK gambling industry 'disappointed' by financial checks decision
On 7 July 2026, the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) announced that it will be introducing Financial Risk Assessments (FRAs) in stages, specifically focusing on high-spending online gamblers.
Two prominent groups in the UK gambling industry, the Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) and the British Horseracing Authority (BHA), have published statements reacting to the UKGC’s announcement, in which they express disappointment with the decision to go ahead with the financial checks due to certain issues they believe have yet to be addressed.
BGC reacts to UKGC announcement of FRAs implementation
Shortly after the UKGC announced that it intends to introduce financial risk assessments in stages, Grainne Hurst, the Chief Executive of the BGC, made a statement in which she said that the BGC is “deeply disappointed and frustrated” with the UKGC’s decision.
Hurst commented that the UKGC’s decision to implement FRAs was made “despite the significant concerns raised over the last 18 months by the BGC, operators, racing, parliamentarians, and customers”.
She continued that the UKGC’s decision to delay implementation, raise thresholds, and not follow the original timetable “is a clear recognition that the concerns raised by the BGC and others were well-founded”. She added that “the central issues around reliability, consumer impact, and the practical operation of these checks remain unresolved”.
Previously, the UKGC initiated a pilot phase for financial risk checks, with the pilot running from 30 August 2024 to 31 March 2025. The UKGC stated that 97 per cent of assessments were carried out in a “frictionless manner” during its second stage.
With that in mind, Hurst remarked that the UKGC has failed to address certain fundamental issues which were identified during the pilot, as she said that the Commission has not demonstrated that the data cited to justify the checks is accurate, reliable, or consistent enough to support such regulatory decisions which will impact consumers.
The BGC CEO said that the pilot had exposed inconsistencies in the information returned by credit reference agencies, “with the same customer potentially receiving different outcomes depending on the provider”. She continued that “customers risk being wrongly identified as financially vulnerable based on a system that remains unproven,” adding that such a situation “is not a sound basis for regulatory intervention”.
BHA reacts to financial checks
In its own reaction to the UKGC’s announcement, the BHA stated that it is “hugely disappointed” with the Commission’s decision to go through with implementing affordability checks, which the BHA said “will have severe financial implications for British racing and the UK economy and subject racing bettors to unwarranted levels of intrusion”.
The BHA continued that, “over a number of years, and through several consultations,” it has engaged in “a spirit of goodwill to honestly advise the Government about the potential impact this policy would have on our sport and its fanbase”.
Echoing similar sentiments to those previously said by the BGC, the BHA said that such checks will result in more customers being pushed towards the illegal market, “which puts them at much greater risk of gambling-related harm, and starving the Treasury of much-needed tax revenue”.
Additionally, the BHA also spoke of issues highlighted during the pilot, issues which it said must be resolved, “including credit reference agencies producing different results for the same customer”.
Ultimately, the BHA stated that it is essential that the UKGC “significantly improves its communication with stakeholders” in light of the policy moving forward to the implementation phase “as there has been a distinct lack of information provided throughout the latter stages of the process”.
It added that it is clear there will be a need for an independent evaluation of the policy once it is implemented.
Questions of ‘frictionless’ description
Going back to the BGC CEO’s statement following the UK Gambling Commission’s announcement, she said that the financial risk checks “cannot be described as genuinely frictionless if they produce unreliable outcomes” and “lead to unnecessary account restrictions or ultimately result in customers being asked to provide documents or open banking information”.
Hurst concluded that the BGC supports evidence-led and proportionate regulation intended to protect vulnerable people, “but until the Commission can demonstrate these checks are accurate, consistent, and genuinely frictionless, our fundamental concerns remain, including the risk of driving customers towards the growing illegal gambling market”.
Whenever discussions about FRAs would take place in the past ahead of this announcement, industry stakeholders have expressed concerns that the introduction of such measures could result in consumers moving to the illegal black market, ultimately harming the regulated industry while assisting the unregulated.
The UKGC has taken note of such concerns and has stated that its proposed approach will reduce document checks for social responsibility reasons and, in turn, decrease the risk of consumers going to the illegal market.
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