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they were warned about the fragilities of open banking and those weren't taken on board. think overall part of the problem here is that you can't wish a compliance into existence. This is a lesson that has to be learned by the Commission. In the midst of an unexpected heatwave, the Gambling Commission has announced that it has paused the rollout of financial risk assessments of UK gambling licenses. The decision appears to have been taken following a board meeting held by the Commission last Thursday. The announcement has been communicated in cautious terms, with the Commission maintaining that it is still examining evidence related to affordability checks. Whether paused or cancelled, uncertainty remains over what the future holds for UK gambling policy and whether headline affordability controls will ultimately be implemented. Welcome to iGaming Daily brought to you by OptiMove, the creator of positionless marketing and number one player engagement solution for iGaming and sports betting operators. I'm Fernando Nott, your host for today and media manager for SBC. We will be uh jumping in on affordability checks on the gambling commission and this board meeting. quote unquote, together with two of the greats from SVC, SVC's finest Joe Streeter editor for iGamingXpert. How are you today? Yeah, great. Thanks for back from Canada last week, a brilliant conference. So much going on, some really good panels. Yeah, some great insight there and uh really hot topic in the UK at the moment. yeah. Yeah, I'm loving the pun there. Hot topic in the UK right now. Very hot. topic. Any topic is hot right now, as we can see from Ted's face at this moment, Ted Memir, Editor-at-Large for SPC, struggling with the heatwave. Ted, how are you today? Yes, I'm very hot and very bothered in London. I'm getting more bothered talking about affordability checks, so audiences be warned. Yeah, all right. So let's give our audience a uh fresh cup of information. And first, I want to hear your first impressions. Is anyone surprised by this decision to delay affordability checks by the commission? Yeah, I can take this one. I can serve up a fresh glass of information on the rocks because of the heat. No, I don't think so. think uh there's been significant kind of... But also I should mitigate that by saying this disruption or delay is not necessarily a bad thing. I think it's... incredibly important that the processes got right and it's going to have such an impact on UK gambling that this should be correct. um I don't think the delay is particularly surprising. There was a lot of political backlash, notably from uh Nigel Farage, I think from the DCMS as well. There was a letter written, but obviously the significant news in this whole process has been the departure of uh James Noyce, who was one of the lobbyists for affordability checks, he's departed from the process, citing the process as the reason for his departure. But I don't think anybody should be surprised, especially as we kind of await the pilot around financial vulnerability checks. I think that's going to be important. We saw the pilot for risk assessments. um that that by all accounts uh seemingly had relatively positive news um and positive feedback um so i think um yeah i i there was always this was never going to be an open goal this was never going to be an easy win for uh the regulator it was always going to be tough to get it through affordability um draws kind of an instinctive negative reaction from the industry um and justifiably in many cases because it does draw players to the back market if you add too much friction to that journey. But I think that needs to be broken down and that's going to take some time. And I think we do need to wait for the pilot on financial risk assessments. Look, I think in the context of where we are, I think every gambling license has gone a very frustrated and everyone's in the dark regarding the applicability of the viability of affordability checks. And you know, this is a process that there has been a real lack of feedback since it ended the 150 test phase that was initiated in August of 2025. Now, nearly kind of a year on, we don't know where the commission stands. And this is after all, the implementation of its headline measure of the gamming review. It's, you know, what the commission should be judged on. And if it can't deliver on that, it's a major setback for the UK gambling. And of course, one word that you can take out of all this situation is frustration, which is clearly visible, especially in terms of how the commission has handled and communicated developments around these affordability checks. So what has gone wrong, Okay, it's important. There's a lot of uproar at the moment, and it's important to say that yes, The AC checks have been delayed, but they are not cancelled. And I think you're going to pay close attention to the language. But what is being said is kind of very vague and the feedback and the progress of the pilot as evidence has just been non-existent. Look, the frustrations are growing, especially in how the commission has managed its stakeholders who are clearly impacted by this. You know, we're talking about horse racing, UK licenses, compliance and the end consumer. Everyone just doesn't know where kind of affordability check stands and what is kind of the UK GC's, you know, what is the UK GC's kind of overall objective. I got a view of this as it stands now. I won't be surprised if there's an intervention by DCMS or the government. This is a department that's really undiscreetly. What are the main concerns and liabilities, of course, surrounding the application of these checks, these affordability checks, these financial risk assessments on the UK gambling consumers? Fair question. I think many are kind of fixated on the pilot reaching a deadline target of imposing like checks of 3 % on UK player accounts. However, I think that if we have drilled down on the technicalities of what the commission is asking for, It's literally down to the consistency of checks, reassurance of credit references, and the level of friction and intrusion of the average consumer. And I think that kind of on the feedback, what we're seeing is that, okay, the target is 3%, but there is gonna be an application onto the rest of the player base of UK gambling. This is gonna affect all UK accounts. Finally, I think it's also kind of the applicability of... on the standard to consumer, you are kind of asking them for these kind of verification of checks and these sources of funds, an application that you'd ask someone who'd want to take out a mortgage or a credit card. Is that fair for someone who just wants to put a 50 pound wager? I'm not sure. that accurate though, Ted? Those types of checks are only going to be for 3 % of players, right? And even then... it's going to be a big chunk of that is going to notice those players going on, those checks going on without any friction. But I mean, I think it's fair for you to kind of come back at it because I think so much of this is that it's dependent on the language that has been used and what the gambling commission has said to date. So the target was 3 % of checks, right? Imposing like checks on these accounts, right? Now this is kind of slowly changed on the course. where we get now where I think about two weeks ago, the commission came back and said that it is kind of, it's going to be an all-round application on the UK consumer. And before we go to a very quick break, I want to ask you, does or do these financial risk assessments remain a feasible regulatory control for UK gambling? they something the industry... or the market needs right now, is it possible that they can enforce these types of controls to the regulated market? How feasible is that? Again, this really comes down to UKGC and how far it is down the line with this, with the pilot scheme. In previous consultation, it was warned about the applicability of financial risk checks and the utility of it as a central control. And it could have pursued other safeguards or kind of other avenues to monitor the player. Again, This is the problem that was, they were warned about kind of the fragilities of open banking and those weren't taken on board. I think overall part of the problem here is that you can't wish a compliance into existence. This is a lesson that has to be learned by the commission. Well, I'll add to that Farah. think, um I'm not sure if it's kind of the same stance or a little bit of a different stance instead, but I do think that affordability is an inevitable fate. for the gambling industry. Affordability is in this new form. think in some ways the industry is going to have to accept it, the regulated industry. I think it's about trying to hit those targets like Ted said, and then it really impacts as minimal amount of players as possible. And largely, maybe we are a little bit reliant on open banking, but largely it goes on in the background without without the players knowing and yeah, that can be of a major benefit, but I do think affordability is an inevitable fate. Inevitable. That's a strong word from Joe Streeter. We are so far, we're in a hashtag wait and see situation for affordability checks in the UK. And right now we're in a wait and we'll be right back with more iGaming Daily because now we are going to do a very quick ad break, but we will be right back to continue discussing. affordability checks in the UK. And we're back with more iGaming Daily to continue discussing affordability checks in the UK. Of course, the Gambling Commission has announced that it has paused. the rollout of these financial risk assessments. So where are we now? We kind of debated it in the first half, but where are we going next? Where does this process uh or how does this process continue, And are affordability checks moving forward or does this whole plot remain stuck in limbo? Yeah, so we had the pilot um of the light touch affordability checks. Um, and I, yeah, I think around, um, think the target was around 80 % of players to go, uh, you know, to, to not be touched by them. Um, and, uh, yeah, they, they kind of, uh, have very minimal impact. Uh, but we had the pilot process of, of, of them. Um, and now we move on and we, kind of away, uh, more, more, more of a trial process and it feedback on the more polarizing, um, the more polarizing affordability checks. I don't even know if you meant to call them affordability checks, but the financial risk assessments, we now await for those to come forward. I guess we go from there, but I think the point Ted echoed in the first half, I'll uh regurgitate that, that feedback is essential here. We need to build those bridges between operators and the commission. Yeah. Get, get feedback here and try and work towards something that is sustainable. So this has been an issue for some time in the UK. The UKGC has been going after these measures for some time. have been covering it on iGamingDaily and of course on all SBC media outlets. So if you want to keep up to date, course, make sure you are subscribed to all the newsletters from SBC. But um why am I saying this is because... I want to know what options does the UKGC have left if they still want to pursue financial risk controls debt? I really don't know. mean, here I'm kind of again, like many, I'm just looking at each communication of the Gambling Commission because it has issued out. It's also kind of looking at kind of its board movement and its timeline. And let's not forget that 2026 is the year of application of the Gambling Review's determinations and reforms. The other thing here is that how far, going back to what we said in part one, how far down the line is the UK gambling at adding these risk controls? And how much is it willing to invest here? If you look at the overall makeup of uh UK gambling, there's been significant investment coming in from the licences themselves to prepare for these changes. And I don't think that there'll be... happy if the commission comes in and says, we haven't been able to apply them or we won't be able to do them in this time frame. uh Everything on a pitch goes back to what was sold in the initial consultation and what's going to come out as the end product and nothing matches. And Joe, what about you? Do you see the commission actually moving to abandon its financial risk assessment plans entirely? Absolutely not. I think these will be pursued. I think we're going to have to find some common ground. as I said before, this is an inevitable fate. I guess I would urge uh maybe the industry to take a more nuanced approach to affordability and to try and be more balanced. That would be my closing words. Because right now, especially in horse racing, affordability is something of a boogeyman. It's, uh, yeah, it comes with a lot of stigma. think there's, uh, this, this feeling that, know, you're going to have to give your, um, the, the same things you would have to, the process you would have to go through to buy a mortgage. You're going to have to go through that to place a bet. I think we need to kind of break down this stigma around affordability. Um, I'm not sure if you saw over the weekend, a player had a, anti post bet. They, they bet on Sunderland to finish in the top half. They returned at, about a thousand pounds with with bet365 and Sunderland obviously qualified for Europe and that the know, the the tweet was along the lines of you know, pay me out. I need to renew my passport essentially hinting that he's going abroad with Sunderland. It was a was a football joke and the bet365 help team, you know, they replied and said we need to email you about your account. We need to speak to you about your account. That to me is an example of where we could see a bit more balance and a bit more nuance when it comes to affordability, a needlessly heavy approach. If you look at the responses as well, uh you really see from players this kind of feeling towards affordability and a lack of any understanding that it does any good. It's just seen as this annoying process that's a bit of a boogeyman that's going to stop you getting paid out. Just to be clear that Sunderland fan was not Charlie Horner. Let's take it out off the table a bit. Ted, I want to open the scope right now. I want to take a look at a wider picture and how does this whole situation affect the Gambling Review and its mandate to deliver generational reform of UK gambling? oh Look, the Gambling Review and its mandate called for the general... a generational reform of UK gambling. And we're now in situation in 2026 where kind of the two headline proposals, right, are far from being, are nowhere near being implemented. Number one, you've seen there's no kind of resolution here on affordability checks and financial risk assessments. And number two, just, know. the levy on gambling harms is far from kind of successful. We've them integrated across couple of the networks, the safer gambling network of the UK. ah You could easily view this as a real setback for the conditions or the framework of governance of UK gambling. Nothing seems to have come out of the input of the white paper. And I think part of this is because the mandate itself was always kind of guided by this retri. very easy kind of narrative to say that, you know, we have to replace analog laws, but replace them with what? This is not being fulfilled. And what are the actual consequences for the commission in case it fails to move forward with this or even abandon its flagship consumer protection measure, which is of course the financial risk assessments. Again, for me, so much of this is up in the air. mean, maybe, and it wouldn't be kind of a bad thing if it restarts or looks at other kind of safer pathways to generate that kind of uh oversight on the player. It doesn't necessarily have to mean that you have a kind of open source banking view uh of the customer. I think that if it went back a couple of steps, it could kind of like refresh kind of the threshold. also work with the operators as Joe was saying. I mean, I think this again kind of falls back to it's a question of how the commission has been governed, what is its capacity and what can it actually deliver on and it hasn't picked kind of easy wins. And of course all these questions can be answered and will be on SBC media outlets like iGamingXpert. overseen by editor Joe Streeter and SBC news, of course, and the whole SBC media network. um I wouldn't say um overseen by Ted Memmure, but it is to some extent uh editor at large Ted Memmure. You can also read from him on SBC news. So make sure you are subscribed to all SBC media newsletters to keep up to date with the UKGC, the UK in general, and all the uh gambling industry related news from all around the world. We will hashtag wait and see what goes on in the UK with the financial risk assessments and affordability checks. But right now we're going to call this one and move on with our lives, even though the heat might be making it very difficult for you guys out there in the UK. Take it easy, drink some water. Thank you very much, Ted, Joe. Thank you very much, Ney MacDonald for producing this episode. I'm Fernando Nott and to our listeners out there, we'll see you in the next one. Goodbye. you