Tim Miller, the Executive Director of the UK Gambling Commission, delivered a keynote speech at the London Ethical Gambling Forum on Tuesday, directly addressing recent criticisms of the pilot project for financial risk assessments. He explicitly promised that operators would not be required to ask players for additional financial documents such as bank statements after completing financial risk assessments, and described this practice as lacking a "legitimate regulatory purpose." Miller tried to alleviate widespread concerns from MPs to industry stakeholders about the potential evolution of financial risk assessments into intrusive surveillance, emphasizing that pilot results showed about 97% of active customers would experience a frictionless assessment, undisturbed, a significant increase from the initial estimate of 80% in the 2023 Gambling Law Review White Paper. The UK Gambling and Gaming Commission had previously sharply criticized the plan, with its CEO, Granny Hurst, bluntly stating, "Forcing players to hand over bank statements is not frictionless but an intrusive act that will push customers towards an unprotected illegal market."
97% frictionless, one in a thousand needs additional support
Miller detailed the core data of the pilot project. The pilot, starting in August 2024, set a threshold of 500 GBP in net monthly deposits for triggering a check in the first phase, and further lowered the threshold to 150 GBP from February 2025. Participating frontline UK operators could use credit counseling agencies to assess players' financial history. Miller pointed out that the customer group participating in the pilot had a two to five times higher probability of defaulting on debts or participating in debt management plans over the past year compared to regular customers. However, less than 3% of active customers would trigger intervention steps, and only about 0.1% of active accounts (i.e., about one in a thousand) could not complete the assessment without additional support, a rate much lower than the initial estimate of 0.6% in the White Paper. Miller also emphasized that this mechanism, long questioned by the industry as "affordability checks under a new guise," was not intended to make specific judgments on how much each customer could afford to spend on gambling.
Simultaneously combating illegal gambling: publishing a national risk assessment
In the latter part of his speech, Miller extended the topic to the governance of the illegal gambling market. He revealed that the Gambling Commission was in the process of compiling a national risk assessment about the illegal market, aimed at ensuring the industry's focus on the main risks that might arise. On the enforcement level, he announced a series of data for 2025 to 2026: the Commission had issued 741 stop orders, reported nearly 398,000 illegal websites to search engines (about 267,000 of which were removed), submitted 1068 websites for takedown, and disrupted the operation of 1134 websites through access closures or geographical blocking. With an additional 26 million GBP in funding from the Treasury over the next three years, the Commission plans to continue increasing investment and, in cooperation with the government-established illegal gambling task force, keep up the pressure.
Regarding the ultimate fate of the financial risk assessment, Miller stated that the Gambling Commission's board had not yet made a final decision, and any decisions would be based on evidence and depend on ongoing government support. If the board approves full implementation, the Commission will establish a joint implementation group with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, operators, and credit counseling agencies to develop a practical promotion plan and proportionate operational guidelines. Finally, he called for the industry to invest more attention in maintaining consumer experience positivity and competitiveness, especially in comparison with the illegal market, to ensure that the licensed gambling industry continues to succeed commercially while balancing innovation and responsible consumer protection.
PASA official website continues to track the evolution of global gambling industry regulatory technology and consumer protection mechanisms, noting that the UK Gambling Commission is trying to resolve longstanding privacy and compliance stalemates through lightweight data interfaces rather than blunt document demands, providing a new negotiation baseline for other mature regulatory markets facing similar dilemmas.
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