Gambling Review White Paper update

[jamesedwards]

https://www.racingpost.com/news/ministe ... ing/597628

[Michael5482]

Very positive indeed, the first indication from the government that intrusive affordability are not acceptable.

Let's hope they can legislate against bookmakers who are already hammering punters with them from imposing them.

[ShaunWhite]

"frictionless" is an interesting term rather than "none" . Perhaps not a limit on individuals but that can be interpreted as control via other methods such as maximum stake. I'd rather prove I can afford it than not be allowed to prove it and have stake limits in the same way they regulated FOBT. That's what a 'frictionless" wagering cap looks like. This govt haven't got a great record for getting anything right so i'm keeping my bunting packed away for now.

[decomez6]

the pushback by the betting industry was long over due.
...so the question begs , is the Betting industry an asset to the tax man or a Liability .
all those Tax paying jobs created by industry must have a certain Muscle Flex Index ....
The industry need to flex those muscles and set the tune !
line the politicians pockets with a good reason to sell the music to the public and we all dance happily ever after.

[ANGELS15]

Very positive indeed, the first indication from the government that intrusive affordability are not acceptable.

Let's hope they can legislate against bookmakers who are already hammering punters with them from imposing them.

I go to bookies from time to time to watch my 'back to lays'. A few weeks ago I was in a Ladbrokes and there was a punter in there seeminly having large bets. As we were the only 2 racing punters in there he struck up a conversation with me and then showed me some of his betting slips. He was indeed staking around £500 per bet.

We talked about the gambling review and he pulled out his phone and showed me several emails he got from bookmakers wanting 'PDF copies' of his bank statements. It didn't end there they would frequently send follow up emails wanting to know 'who is the company x that you paid £4k to what was that for? etc The guy is a businessman and property developer/investor.

He was thoroughly sick of it as he had been a big punter for over 30 years.

[jamesedwards]

I was at ICE today, and spent some quality time with a rep from the Gambling Commission, and the Experian UK Head of Gaming. I discussed the impending government safer-gambling white paper from the perspective of a pro-gambler.

Below is a summary of what I learnt:

• There will be a clear and aligned set of specific guidelines that every Operator will need to adhere to.

• Operators will be expected to conduct a review of every new account application as well as churning through existing accounts every X period of time. There will also be a set of loss-based criteria (to be confirmed) that trigger further review. eg £1k in a day, £2k in 7 days, £5k in 3 months etc.

• The review will be facilitated by a third party Data Provider (eg Experian), who will check/compare data provided by the Customer against data on file and report back any anomalies and likely also an affordability score. The affordability score will be based on postcode, credit file, and top-line income/outgoings of bank accounts. If the customer is signed up to Open Banking then they will use this extra layer of granularity to provide a more accurate affordability score. Operators will use the affordability score to set appropriate spend limits.

• Customers will no longer need to provide wage slips and bank statements, unless required by exception. Operators' refusal to include consistent gambling winnings as income "should" be a thing of the past.

• There will be some element of single customer view to follow which aims to make sure the Customer's total gambling spend across all Operators is considered when conducting a review. There are many hurdles to overcome before anything can go live, not least GDPR. Interestingly the GC rep said they were hoping for something this year while the guy from Experian expected it to be several years down the line.

Best practise for pro-gamblers:

• Try and keep gambling withdrawals regular and consistent. eg the same value on the same day every month, as if you were receiving a salary. This will show as your 'income' in an affordability review.

• Keep as good a credit score as possible.

• Consider the affect your top-line income and expenditure may have on your affordability score.

• If you pass gambling withdrawals through your bank account to other investments/savings accounts be aware that these will show as expenditure on an affordability check. Be prepared to offer up proof of investments/savings balances if you are challenged.

• If your finances are in a particularly good state then consider signing up to Open Banking which will allow the affordability score to consider your exact gambling income/expenditure and have visibility of what you do with your withdrawals.

[Euler]

Thanks for the write up of your findings. I was there today as well.

[Derek27]

Is that the Independent Complaints Examiner or the Institute of Civil Engineering?

[ShaunWhite]

Thanks for writing that up James, that's a really thorough debriefing.

[megarain]

Yeah, thx James.

It’s interesting Experian think it will take time - but hopefully something can be done in the interim to relax controls which have clearly gone too far.

[Kai]

Below is a summary of what I learnt

Good stuff James

Might also be worth doing a BA video on it

[Euler]

Below is a summary of what I learnt

Good stuff James

Might also be worth doing a BA video on it

If James is happy for me to do that and credit him, I'd happily produce one.

[ShaunWhite]

Classic govt. Subcontract the thinking to Experian, so they embed themselves as deeply as possible to maximise the fees. Tories polling as the 3rd party so hopefully they'll be history soon anyway.

[Michael5482]

I was at ICE today, and spent some quality time with a rep from the Gambling Commission, and the Experian UK Head of Gaming. I discussed the impending government safer-gambling white paper from the perspective of a pro-gambler.

Below is a summary of what I learnt:

• There will be a clear and aligned set of specific guidelines that every Operator will need to adhere to.

• Operators will be expected to conduct a review of every new account application as well as churning through existing accounts every X period of time. There will also be a set of loss-based criteria (to be confirmed) that trigger further review. eg £1k in a day, £2k in 7 days, £5k in 3 months etc.

• The review will be facilitated by a third party Data Provider (eg Experian), who will check/compare data provided by the Customer against data on file and report back any anomalies and likely also an affordability score. The affordability score will be based on postcode, credit file, and top-line income/outgoings of bank accounts. If the customer is signed up to Open Banking then they will use this extra layer of granularity to provide a more accurate affordability score. Operators will use the affordability score to set appropriate spend limits.

• Customers will no longer need to provide wage slips and bank statements, unless required by exception. Operators' refusal to include consistent gambling winnings as income "should" be a thing of the past.

• There will be some element of single customer view to follow which aims to make sure the Customer's total gambling spend across all Operators is considered when conducting a review. There are many hurdles to overcome before anything can go live, not least GDPR. Interestingly the GC rep said they were hoping for something this year while the guy from Experian expected it to be several years down the line.

Best practise for pro-gamblers:

• Try and keep gambling withdrawals regular and consistent. eg the same value on the same day every month, as if you were receiving a salary. This will show as your 'income' in an affordability review.

• Keep as good a credit score as possible.

• Consider the affect your top-line income and expenditure may have on your affordability score.

• If you pass gambling withdrawals through your bank account to other investments/savings accounts be aware that these will show as expenditure on an affordability check. Be prepared to offer up proof of investments/savings balances if you are challenged.

• If your finances are in a particularly good state then consider signing up to Open Banking which will allow the affordability score to consider your exact gambling income/expenditure and have visibility of what you do with your withdrawals.

Great write up James thanks for posting

[wearthefoxhat]

I was at ICE today, and spent some quality time with a rep from the Gambling Commission, and the Experian UK Head of Gaming. I discussed the impending government safer-gambling white paper from the perspective of a pro-gambler.

Below is a summary of what I learnt:

• There will be a clear and aligned set of specific guidelines that every Operator will need to adhere to.

• Operators will be expected to conduct a review of every new account application as well as churning through existing accounts every X period of time. There will also be a set of loss-based criteria (to be confirmed) that trigger further review. eg £1k in a day, £2k in 7 days, £5k in 3 months etc.

• The review will be facilitated by a third party Data Provider (eg Experian), who will check/compare data provided by the Customer against data on file and report back any anomalies and likely also an affordability score. The affordability score will be based on postcode, credit file, and top-line income/outgoings of bank accounts. If the customer is signed up to Open Banking then they will use this extra layer of granularity to provide a more accurate affordability score. Operators will use the affordability score to set appropriate spend limits.

• Customers will no longer need to provide wage slips and bank statements, unless required by exception. Operators' refusal to include consistent gambling winnings as income "should" be a thing of the past.

• There will be some element of single customer view to follow which aims to make sure the Customer's total gambling spend across all Operators is considered when conducting a review. There are many hurdles to overcome before anything can go live, not least GDPR. Interestingly the GC rep said they were hoping for something this year while the guy from Experian expected it to be several years down the line.

Best practise for pro-gamblers:

• Try and keep gambling withdrawals regular and consistent. eg the same value on the same day every month, as if you were receiving a salary. This will show as your 'income' in an affordability review.

• Keep as good a credit score as possible.

• Consider the affect your top-line income and expenditure may have on your affordability score.

• If you pass gambling withdrawals through your bank account to other investments/savings accounts be aware that these will show as expenditure on an affordability check. Be prepared to offer up proof of investments/savings balances if you are challenged.

• If your finances are in a particularly good state then consider signing up to Open Banking which will allow the affordability score to consider your exact gambling income/expenditure and have visibility of what you do with your withdrawals.

Good Info.

Having a "soft" credit check done is a better way to go than being asked/told to supply copious amounts of personal data, ie: bank statements.P.60's, house deeds, inside leg measurements...

If someone has a bad credit record, maybe through no fault of their own, the priority should to fix that first before opening betting accounts and so forth.