Stage One Complete
The United Kingdom Gambling Commission (UKGC) first announced the launch of its new financial risk assessment programs last May, with the pilot commencing in September. Now, six months after the launch, it has issued its first update.
The UKGC has stated that this pilot scheme will be completed over three phases, with the first being complete, and the final concluding in April this year. The report was provided by Director of Major Policy Projects and Evaluation Helen Rhodes.
The Commission described the first stage as ‘a pilot of a pilot’ with the agency looking at historical data from inactive users. The purpose of this phase was to assess the quality of the data and to be able to analyse the insights and understanding it provided.
The stage ran 530,000 assessments using three credit reference agencies, using around 300,000 accounts. The tests were largely successful, with 95% of them passing the first success stage of a frictionless assessment.
The 5% that were not frictionless were mostly due to data formatting issues or duplications in the data.
The Next Stages
The pilot will now move into its next phase, with the Commission highlighting that more can be done to help operators understand the findings from these assessments. The checks will not go live until April.
These light credit checks come as part of a wider overhaul in the UK gambling industry. Credit checks will be completed in order to help assess a player's risk of financial harm when gambling online.
The tests will be frictionless and will only be soft checks. They will have no impact on the customer’s credit score. The Gambling Commission insists that it will be cautious in its approach, with Helen Rhodes saying we have always said that “We will proceed cautiously, and this is why we are conducting a pilot of the assessments.
“We are testing whether - and how - financial risk assessments could be introduced in a way that supports high-spending customers in financial difficulties but also supports a frictionless customer journey for the vast majority of customers.”
