The Gambling Commission (GC) has shed further light on its pilot scheme for financial risk checks as the regulator confirmed the process will last between six and seven months.
The pilot, which was confirmed in May, will see “the largest gambling operators” work through multiple stages to determine how the financial risk checks process would manifest in a live setting.
The pilot will not operate as a live test over during the period, meaning customers will not be affected and operators will not be able to take actions against accounts.
The scheme will take place across three stages and will see operators work with credit reference agencies to flesh out a potential future framework.
As laid out in a blog post by Helen Rhodes, GC director of major policy projects and evaluation, the operators will digest historical and current data to test how financial viability of individuals can be interpreted and then acted upon.
Rhodes wrote: “We are testing whether high spending customers who are in significant current financial difficulties or severely degrading financial difficulties can be identified – for example, this means people who might be in significant arrears, high levels of indebtedness, or have multiple missed payments.
“We are testing how operators can be given limited information to understand how severe these financial difficulties might be, in order to take action to support the customer.”
She added: “This would potentially allow operators in the future to look at other indicators of harm they have and tailor support to the customer ranging from reducing marketing, encouraging the use of deposit limits, right up to ceasing the customer relationship.
“Where no financial difficulties are identified, the operator would not need to take any action.”
The testing process will include multiple stages, with each stage being measured against at least one success criteria.
Those core criteria lay in the frictionless aspect of the financial risk checks, data relevance and accuracy and implementation issues.
On the frictionless front, the GC is checking whether 80% of more of accounts that would hit a threshold would be checked frictionlessly.
The GC is also exploring how quickly credit reference agencies could process and assessment and return a score or ‘red, amber, green (RAG)’ rating to operators.
On the data relevancy point, it will be explored if credit reference data is the most appropriate path to take or could current account turnover data provided more “relevant insights on a customer’s individual financial risk”.
In terms of implementation issues, the pilot will delve into how operators can build financial risk assessments into existing customer interaction processes.
Rhodes concluded: “The pilot will provide insight to help us decide whether to proceed with the implementation of frictionless financial risk assessments and, if so, how.
“But these decisions would also be informed by wider considerations of data, evidence, consultation responses and our consumer research.
“If financial risk assessments are introduced in the future, we are committed to longer term evaluation. This would enable the Commission and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) jointly to consider if the policy is delivering the intended outcomes for consumers in a live environment.”
In an additional blog post, GC executive director Tim Miller revealed what the regulator will be working on in the coming months as the financial risk check pilot clicks into gear.
He said: “In coming months, further rule changes will come into effect to ensure fairness and transparency to customers as well as to make gambling safer through a range of measures.
“This includes controls on remote game design which come into force in January and new requirements to allow consumers greater control over the type of direct marketing they receive, which will now be implemented in May 2025 to allow for the technical changes needed.”
He added: “We are considering the responses we have received from a wide range of stakeholders on our further set of consultations from autumn 2023.
“We are meeting our data commitments, for example through our Gambling Survey for Great Britain. And we will work with the DCMS as they progress any policy work that may take place following the election.”
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