Delay is seemingly on the cards for the overhaul of UK gambling reform, as new policies around deposit limits were pushed back by three months.
With affordability fuelling debate in the gambling industry, the delays to deposit limits threaten to spark further uncertainty around what the future framework looks like in the UK market.
There is still a lack of clarity surrounding the future of Financial Risk Assessments and the checks that are set to be placed on customers.
However, for deposit limit requirements, the date of implementation has been shifted from 30 June 2026 to 30 September 2026.
From this date, only gross deposit limits can be offered over fixed time frames. Rolling and fixed time frames can be used for other limit types.
There are three key elements to the changes that are being implemented from the end of September.
- Offer gross deposit limits to their customers and reintroduce gross deposit limits to customers’ available options
- Ensure gross deposit limits are called deposit limits and make sure that only these are called ‘deposit limits’
- Offer gross deposit limits with “at least equal prominence as other types of financial limit.”
Whilst the delay is far from a significant one, the new timescale of implementation may provide a clue as to when we can anticipate wider reforms for the UK approach to safer gambling and affordability.
Central to the changes is boosting the visibility of the player when it comes to controlling their gambling, a factor the Commission outlined fuelled the new affordability process.
Whilst delay has the potential to intensify rumours and a lack of clarity, if necessary, it should be viewed as the appropriate measure for UK gambling, particularly at such a crucial crossroads.
Sitting on the cusp of what is being billed as a generational change for UK gambling, a measured approach and getting the result right should be the foremost priority.
Speaking on iGaming Daily, SBC Media’s Editor-at-Large, Ted Menmuir, recently emphasised that throughout the process of implementation, we have truly established affordability and predicting or projecting an individual’s affordability is an ‘acute science’ and must not be rushed.
