31 GPWAtimes.org withdrawals) of over £150 in a rolling 30-day period. The purpose of this is to check for signs of financial vulnerability, so operators must establish whether the customer is subject to a bankruptcy order, court judgment, or other debt relief agreements or orders. These checks must commence from 30 August 2024, but initially using a threshold of £500 net deposits over the past 30 days, with the amount reducing to £125 in February 2025. A critical aspect is what the gambling operator does with the information discovered from this check. They are required to take “proportionate action” based on what they have discovered and everything else they know about the customer. If the operator now knows the customer has some financial vulnerability, depending on the nature of the information, proportionate action is likely to involve some further assessment of their financial circumstances and/or putting some limits in place to protect them from gambling harm. The Commission’s guidance that indicates unaffordable gambling is a sign of harm remains in place. It is also important to note that a clear result from this check is not a green light for the operator to allow unlimited gambling. The consideration of proportionate action is not limited to circumstances where a negative result has been found in the check. This must also be considered by the operator along with other information about the customer to assess whether they are at risk of gambling harm. Once this consideration has taken place, the Commission’s consultation response leaves a gap, as “enhanced checks” at higher levels of spend will not come into force until a pilot phase (during which the larger operators will carry out the checks but will not act of their results) has been completed. To fill this gap, the industry body the Betting and Gaming Council has developed a Code of Practice, which is voluntary but has been endorsed by the Gambling Commission. This Code sets out a procedure for a “risk assessment” to be carried out on customers before they are permitted a net deposit figure of over £5,000 per month (or £2,500 for customers aged under 25) and an “enhanced assessment” for customers with a net deposit of £25k or more in a year. For the risk assessment, operators can choose from a range of approaches which include the customer making a self-declaration of their income and/or wealth, while the enhanced assessment is likely to require the production of documentary evidence. Operators must take “appropriate action” if “high-risk activity” is identified. Again, it is for the operator to determine what such action is to be. A large degree of discretion clearly remains to operators, particularly in terms of the action to be taken following either check and if and when spending limits should be imposed on customers. However, overall, the new regime of checks will, for many operators, enable a relaxation of their current approach, particularly where that involved requiring documentary evidence from customers at lower spending levels.
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