Gambling Financial Risk Assessments: Thresholds and What They Check

Two different financial checks are often bundled together under the label "affordability checks". One is already live for online gambling in Great Britain. The other, the Financial Risk Assessment or FRA, is planned for higher-spending customers and will be introduced in stages.

As of 22 September 2026, Stage 1 of the FRA regime has not started and the Gambling Commission has not announced its start date.

Check	Trigger	Information used	Status
Financial vulnerability check	More than £150 net deposits in a rolling 30-day period	Public-record indicators of serious financial difficulty	Live now
Financial Risk Assessment	Stage 1: more than £5,000 in 24 hours for customers aged 25 and over, or more than £2,500 for under-25s	A limited assessment from a credit reference agency	Not yet live

What checks are already happening?

Remote gambling operators in Great Britain must carry out a financial vulnerability check when a customer's net deposits exceed £150 over a rolling 30-day period. Net deposits are deposits minus withdrawals.

The check uses public-record information for signs of serious financial difficulty, including bankruptcy, County Court Judgments, Individual Voluntary Arrangements and Debt Relief Orders. It is not a request for salary information and it is not intended to calculate how much somebody can afford to gamble.

For most customers the check happens in the background. If relevant information is found, the operator must consider it alongside the other information it holds and decide what action, if any, is appropriate.

What is a Financial Risk Assessment?

FRAs are intended for customers depositing at much higher levels. Instead of relying only on public records, the operator would request a limited assessment from a credit reference agency.

The Gambling Commission says the information returned will cover financial-risk indicators such as defaults, multiple arrears, significant arrears and whether the customer has a Debt Management Plan. The operator will not receive the customer's full credit report or access to their bank account.

The Commission also says the assessment will not affect the customer's credit score and gambling behaviour will not be shared with the wider financial sector.

When would an FRA be triggered?

The Commission chose a staged rollout rather than moving immediately to the final thresholds.

At Stage 1, the thresholds will be:

• Age 25 and over: more than £5,000 net deposits in a rolling 24-hour period
• Under 25: more than £2,500 net deposits in a rolling 24-hour period

The intermediate thresholds have not yet been set.

At the final stage, the thresholds are planned to be:

• Age 25 and over: more than £1,000 net deposits in 24 hours or more than £3,000 over 90 days
• Under 25: more than £750 net deposits in 24 hours or more than £2,000 over 90 days

Those final thresholds should not be read as current triggers. Stage 1 has not yet begun.

Why has implementation taken so long?

Financial checks became one of the most contested parts of the Government's gambling review. Concerns included privacy, intrusive document requests and the risk of customers moving to unlicensed gambling sites if checks became too burdensome in practice.

The Commission ran a pilot before deciding whether to proceed. Its published findings said most assessments could be matched without involving the customer and that the high-spending customers assessed were more likely to show indicators of financial difficulty than comparison populations.

The Commission reported that customers in the pilot were between two and four times more likely to have a Debt Management Plan and between two and five times more likely to have had a default in the previous 12 months. It subsequently chose a staged implementation rather than an immediate move to the final thresholds.

Will I be asked for bank statements?

An FRA is designed to obtain a limited financial-risk assessment from a credit reference agency without asking most customers to send documents themselves. The Commission has said that routinely requesting bank statements or other documents simply because an FRA was triggered would serve no regulatory purpose.

Operators can still ask for financial documents for other reasons. Anti-money laundering, source-of-funds and safer-gambling processes continue separately and can involve requests for bank statements or other evidence.

What happens if an assessment finds a problem?

There is no automatic rule that a poor assessment must lead to an account closure.

The operator is expected to consider the financial information alongside what it already knows about the customer's gambling. That can include spending patterns, changes in behaviour, chasing losses and other indicators of harm.

Possible responses can include reducing marketing, contacting the customer or applying limits where the overall picture suggests a genuine risk. The Commission has warned against treating every risk flag as a reason to request documents or close an account immediately.

What about a big win followed by a big deposit?

The thresholds use net deposits, not simply the amount paid into the account. A customer who has recently withdrawn substantial winnings can therefore be in a different position from someone who deposits the same amount without withdrawals.

The Commission has also said operators should consider gambling history and previous winnings when assessing the overall picture.

Will most gamblers notice?

The existing £150 financial vulnerability check already operates in the background for many online customers.

FRAs are aimed at much higher deposit levels. Even when the new system starts, the Commission expects most assessments to happen without the customer having to provide documents or take part directly.

For now, the practical position is simple: the £150 vulnerability check is live, while the staged FRA regime is not. That changes only when the Gambling Commission confirms a Stage 1 start date.