The Gambling Commission (UKGC) issued a blog post on Wednesday detailing the data from its financial risk assessments (FRAs) pilot, conducted from 2024 to 2025. In the post, senior executives Helen Rhodes and Sarah Webster noted significant issues with identity verification by gambling operators, which ultimately weakened the pilot’s effectiveness.
These shortcomings not only detracted from the consumer experience, resulting in increased friction, complaints, and regulatory risks, but they also hindered the Commission's aim for a smooth financial risk assessment process. The blog indicated that failures during the customer onboarding process, particularly due to incomplete or inaccurate personal information, were critical factors preventing some customers from being matched to credit reference agency records during the FRAs pilot. Successful matching is essential for achieving the pilot’s frictionless assessment objective.
The rollout of the FRAs will occur in phases, with the Commission planning to announce the timeline for the first phase following additional discussions with the industry in the summer.
The pilot relied on gambling operators' accurate verification of customer identities against third-party data. Instances where matching failed led to customers being categorized as 'unmatched', subjecting them to more complicated assessment procedures. Although these unmatched cases were a small minority, the Commission closely examined them and found patterns of recurring problems.
Issues included the use of initials rather than full names and the submission of nicknames instead of legal forenames, alongside commercial addresses being provided instead of residential ones. Such inaccuracies diminished matching success and impaired key protections like GAMSTOP, while also raising fraud and money laundering risks.
Tim Miller, the Commission's outgoing executive director, announced at iGBLive that updates on the pilot’s data would not be available until September. This prompted backlash from industry leaders and related sectors, who described the verification checks as detrimental. Grainne Hurst, CEO of the Betting and Gaming Council (BGC), expressed disappointment that a comprehensive evaluation of the pilot had not yet been published, despite the announcement of an upcoming full scheme. She emphasized, "The Commission has yet to publish a full evaluation of the pilot, so neither the industry nor the public has seen the evidence needed to justify introducing these checks. These checks cannot be described as genuinely frictionless if they produce unreliable outcomes."
The Commission has reminded operators of their obligations under Licence Condition 17, which mandates verification of a customer’s name, address, and date of birth prior to allowing gambling activity. The blog post highlighted that over 25% of complaints received by the Commission’s Contact Centre are related to identity verification issues, which have become a major cause of disputes escalated to Alternative Dispute Resolution services.
Another concern raised by the regulator is the common practice where identity flags and financial risk alerts are only addressed when a customer attempts to make a withdrawal. This was criticized for increasing customer frustration and contributing to more complaints. The Commission warned that this reactive approach not only risks violating license conditions and anti-money laundering laws but also adds unnecessary friction for the customer. While the Commission does not require enhanced due diligence for every customer at registration, it does call for gambling operators to implement robust checks to confirm unique identities.
