The Gambling Commission was always risking inflaming a conflict with the industry as it moved to implement Financial Risk Assessments.
Despite seeking to assure caution from the industry through the phased implementation of FRAs, Betting and Gaming Council CEO Grainne Hurst has retaliated by slamming the GC for ‘failing to address the fundamental issues identified during its own pilot’.
Acting CEO Sarah Gardner stated that there is still an eagerness to work with the industry as the integration of FRAs develops.
Yet the BGC has underscored its concerns that industry warnings are falling on deaf ears, Hurst expressed ‘deep disappointment and frustration that the Gambling Commission has decided to press ahead with Financial Risk Assessments’.
She continued: “The fact that the Gambling Commission has delayed implementation, raised thresholds and abandoned its original timetable is a clear recognition that the concerns raised by the BGC and others were well founded. Unfortunately, the central issues around reliability, consumer impact and the practical operation of these checks remain unresolved.
“It has not demonstrated that the data underpinning these checks is accurate, reliable or consistent enough to support regulatory decisions affecting customers.
“The pilot exposed inconsistencies in the information returned by credit reference agencies, with the same customer potentially receiving different outcomes depending on the provider. Customers risk being wrongly identified as financially vulnerable based on a system that remains unproven. That is not a sound basis for regulatory intervention.”
The GC was questioned about the quality of the data during a briefing with journalists, and Gardner was vehement in its defence, describing it as the most accurate and relevant data about financial risk that is possible for operators to access.
Gardner underpinned that no other measure offers the same quality of data or consistency, adding that the GC believes it will improve consistency in the sector, because the current approaches by operators are very inconsistent.
Hurst also slammed the Commission for failing to publish a full evaluation of the pilot. However, Gardner has stated that the GC published all the information about the frictionless rates.
She added that the GC ‘will also release more information as part of our consultation response in the autumn’, but warned that there is some commercially sensitive information that is specific to individual credit reference agencies and specific to individual gambling businesses.
Therefore, the information released alongside the response document will have some summarising to protect the commercial sensitivity of those organisations.
The checks being frictionless is a real point of contention for the industry, and Hurst lamented that ‘these checks cannot be described as genuinely frictionless if they produce unreliable outcomes, lead to unnecessary account restrictions or ultimately result in customers being asked to provide documents or open banking information’’.
She concluded: “While the Commission has announced implementation groups, it has not indicated that they will resolve the outstanding questions around reliability, consumer impact and how the system will operate in practice.
“We support evidence-led, proportionate regulation that protects vulnerable people while allowing the 22.5 million adults in Britain who bet each month to do so safely. But until the Commission can demonstrate these checks are accurate, consistent and genuinely frictionless, our fundamental concerns remain, including the risk of driving customers towards the growing illegal gambling market.”
iGaming Expert Analysis: Ironically, a level of friction was inevitable when the Commission announced the Risk Assessments this morning. But I do believe that the industry has to get on board with affordability checks and is gradually growing to embrace the idea. The future of the checks will largely hinge upon whether they can remain frictionless for the vast majority of players, and the next stages of implementation will be crucial.
