Affordability has dominated headlines in Western gambling markets, notably as one of the most controversial mandates in the UK market.
Speaking on iGaming Daily, SBC Media’s Editor-at-Large, Ted Menmuir, revealed that financial risk checks were being billed as the highest technical safeguard and generational change as a result of a new era brought about by the White Paper implementation.
Whilst Menmuir acknowledged that this tagline is incredibly enticing as UK gambling embarks on sweeping changes, the test pilot has continued for several years. Menmuir noted that the feedback has been very limited to stakeholders, with efficiency and viability around the project still being unknown.
He outlined that this feels like an urgent vulnerability to the successful implementation of one of the key steps of the white paper. What has been established is that affordability and predicting or projecting an individual’s affordability is an ‘acute science’.
Menmuir cautioned that there has been mixed messaging off the back of the trial period, whilst stating that the commission has stood by its belief that only 3% of active accounts will trigger checks, with the remaining being frictionless.
A mould is being formed, according to the Editor-at-Large, over what will define the 3%, a process that has been extensive, but is finally concluding.
Menmuir did question whether regulators could have taken an alternative approach to affordability checks, but instead underwent a more data-driven direction layered into all provisions and likely more laborious.
There was a warning from Menmuir as we enter a new era that, should the 3% target be missed, there could be a significant number of affordability checks being infringed upon players in the UK.
Menmuir lamented the vagueness that has been embarked on in the process by the commission, with it failing to take into account the nuances of UK gambling and its wide variety of player base, emphasising that a one-size-fits-all approach is simply unsustainable.
According to the Editor-at-Large, the VIP and high-stakes players are the ones who will shy away from friction, eventually leading to them looking elsewhere.
He underpinned that this is a period of transition, even beyond the compliance, as the whole approach to Financial Risk Checks evolves at a dramatic rate.
Menmuir stated that ‘all the DCMS asked is what is the correct layer of protection onto consumers, but it has all become a part of a wider puzzle of trying to land the white paper in a complex gambling market’.
