Safety & regulation
Affordability Checks Explained (2026)
8 minute read
Two different checks get called 'affordability' and players confuse them constantly. One is a silent data check. The other can ask for your payslips. Here is the difference.
The two checks that both get called 'affordability'
In 2026 there are two separate things happening when a UK casino looks at what you can afford, and they work in completely different ways. The first is the Gambling Commission's regime of light-touch financial vulnerability checks and financial risk assessments, which are built to run on data in the background. The second is the operator's own anti-money-laundering duty, which absolutely can ask you for documents.
Almost every angry forum post about 'being asked for bank statements at £200' is actually about the second one. Knowing which is which tells you whether a request is routine, and whether it should have been made earlier than it was.
Light-touch financial vulnerability checks: £150 net deposits
The light-touch check applies at £150 net deposits in a rolling 30-day period. Net deposits means deposits minus withdrawals, so if you deposit £300 and withdraw £200 across the month you are at £100 net, not £300.
This check is data-only. The operator runs a check against publicly available information — the kind of thing that shows a county court judgment, an individual voluntary arrangement or a bankruptcy against your name. It does not involve you sending anything in, it is not a credit check that affects your credit score, and the overwhelming majority of players never see any sign that it happened.
If it flags something, the operator is expected to act on it — usually by pausing the account or asking further questions — rather than carrying on regardless.
Financial risk assessments: staged rollout from July 2026
Financial risk assessments are the heavier tier, aimed at the highest-spending accounts. They are being introduced in stages from July 2026, starting with the largest operators, and they trigger at a far higher level — around £5,000 in net deposits inside 24 hours.
The critical point, and the one the Gambling Commission has been explicit about, is that these assessments are data-based and not document-based. Players are not required to submit documents for a financial risk assessment. The assessment is run behind the scenes using credit reference data supplied to the operator, and it is designed to be frictionless for the customer.
Because the rollout is staged, whether your casino runs one at all in 2026 depends on the size of the operator. We mark items on our rule-change tracker as monitoring until each stage is confirmed live.
| Check | Trigger | Based on | Documents needed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Financial vulnerability check | £150 net deposits per rolling 30 days | Public records (CCJs, bankruptcies, IVAs) | None |
| Financial risk assessment | Around £5,000 net deposits in 24 hours | Credit reference data, staged from July 2026 | None |
| AML source of funds | Operator's own risk rules — no fixed threshold | Your actual finances | Yes — payslips, bank statements, etc. |
Source of funds is a different duty entirely
Separately from anything the affordability regime does, every UK licensee has anti-money-laundering obligations. Under those, an operator can and will ask you to evidence where your money came from — payslips, bank statements, a P60, proof of a property sale, an inheritance letter. There is no fixed national threshold for this: it is driven by the operator's own risk assessment, so one casino may ask at a level another never would.
This is the request that lands in players' inboxes and gets described as 'the affordability check'. It is not. It is source of funds, it is a legal requirement on the operator, and refusing it will normally freeze the account and the withdrawal.
What you can push back on is timing. The Commission has been clear that operators should not sit on information requests until you try to withdraw. If a casino could reasonably have asked at registration or at the point of a large deposit and instead waited until you cashed out a win, that is a complaint worth making.
- Send documents through the casino's own upload tool, never by email attachment to an unverified address.
- Match the name and address on every document to the one on your casino account.
- Ask, in writing, which specific regulation the request is made under — a legitimate operator will tell you.
What this means in practice
If you deposit modest amounts, the practical effect of the 2026 regime is close to zero: a background data check you will never see. If you deposit heavily, expect a data-based assessment at the top tier and, quite separately, a document-based source-of-funds request driven by the operator's AML policy.
The single best thing you can do is complete verification fully when you open the account, before you deposit. It removes the most common cause of a delayed first withdrawal and it means any later request is genuinely about funds rather than identity.
FAQs
Will I be checked if I deposit £150 a month?
You will pass the light-touch financial vulnerability threshold at £150 net deposits in a rolling 30 days, but that check runs on public records in the background. Unless something like a CCJ or bankruptcy shows against your name, you will not be contacted and you will not be asked for anything.
Do I have to send payslips for an affordability check?
No. The Gambling Commission's financial risk assessments are data-based and players are not required to submit documents for them. If a casino is asking for payslips or bank statements, that is an anti-money-laundering source-of-funds request, which is a separate legal duty on the operator.
Does an affordability check affect my credit score?
No. These are not credit applications. The checks use credit reference and public record data, but they are not lending decisions and they do not leave the kind of hard footprint that a loan or card application does.
Can I refuse a source-of-funds request?
You can, but the operator will almost certainly suspend the account and hold the balance, because paying out without satisfying its AML obligations would put its licence at risk. If you think the request is unreasonable or badly timed, complete it under protest and then complain, or take it to the operator's ADR provider.
Why did one casino ask me for documents and another never did?
Because source-of-funds triggers are set by each operator's own risk assessment rather than by a single national threshold. Two licensed casinos can legitimately treat the same deposit pattern very differently.
Related
Frequently asked questions
Will I be checked if I deposit £150 a month?
You will pass the light-touch financial vulnerability threshold at £150 net deposits in a rolling 30 days, but that check runs on public records in the background. Unless something like a CCJ or bankruptcy shows against your name, you will not be contacted and you will not be asked for anything.
Do I have to send payslips for an affordability check?
No. The Gambling Commission's financial risk assessments are data-based and players are not required to submit documents for them. If a casino is asking for payslips or bank statements, that is an anti-money-laundering source-of-funds request, which is a separate legal duty on the operator.
Does an affordability check affect my credit score?
No. These are not credit applications. The checks use credit reference and public record data, but they are not lending decisions and they do not leave the kind of hard footprint that a loan or card application does.
Can I refuse a source-of-funds request?
You can, but the operator will almost certainly suspend the account and hold the balance, because paying out without satisfying its AML obligations would put its licence at risk. If you think the request is unreasonable or badly timed, complete it under protest and then complain, or take it to the operator's ADR provider.
Why did one casino ask me for documents and another never did?
Because source-of-funds triggers are set by each operator's own risk assessment rather than by a single national threshold. Two licensed casinos can legitimately treat the same deposit pattern very differently.