The UK Gambling Commission has given an update on its pilot programme of financial risk checks as it progresses to the next stage.
The Commission is assessing how financial risk checks could be used to support and identify financially vulnerable customers, taking the pilot programme to the next stage in a new update. The pilot is not yet live but is being conducted in three stages, with deep analysis at every point.
Stage one saw 95% of assessments conducted in a frictionless way, which increased to 97% in stage two. 1.7 million financial risk checks were conducted across three credit reference companies in stage two. The Commission has emphasized that these checks are not affordability checks, but instead checks designed to identify potentially vulnerable people.
If the proposed thresholds from the Commission’s 2023 consultation were introduced, stage two findings suggest that an estimated 0.1% of accounts would both require an assessment and be unable to receive one in a frictionless manner.
“We are beginning to understand more about the financial risk profile of the customers who met the thresholds for the pilot,” reads the public statement from the Commission. “Two credit reference agencies shared data to indicate that the customers who met the thresholds for the pilot where they conducted assessments were more likely to have one of the direct risk flags on which operators are permitted to receive data in comparison to their separate wider UK populations.”
What is next for the financial risk checks pilot?
The analysis phase of stage three of the pilot is planned to conclude at the end of the summer, followed by stage four where it will assess how well such measures can be implemented.
“These further findings from the pilot have helped us understand the extent that assessments could be conducted in a frictionless manner,” said Commission Director of Major Policy Projects Helen Rhodes. “Building on our staged approach to the pilot, we will now further explore data consistency across credit reference agencies, as well as how to support operators to identify the severity of financial difficulties that a customer may be experiencing and how they could support these customers.”
This comes after the Commission has observed a rise in several areas of betting over the last few years. The organization is also working on a long-awaited reform to UK gambling laws.
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