Financial risk assessments are rolling out: who gets checked and when
The heavier tier of affordability checking starts arriving in July 2026 — at the largest operators first, at a threshold most players will never reach.
The heavier tier of affordability checking starts arriving in July 2026 — at the largest operators first, at a threshold most players will never reach.
From July 2026 the Gambling Commission's financial risk assessments begin a staged introduction, starting with the largest operators. They trigger at around £5,000 in net deposits within 24 hours and they are run on data rather than on documents you supply.
Who is in scope, and when
The rollout is deliberately staged rather than switched on across the market at once. The largest operators come first, which means whether your casino runs an assessment at all in 2026 depends on its size.
The trigger is high: around £5,000 of net deposits — deposits minus withdrawals — inside a 24-hour window. That is a threshold the overwhelming majority of accounts will never approach.
Data-based, not document-based
This is the point that keeps getting lost. A financial risk assessment is run using credit reference data supplied to the operator. The Commission has been explicit that players are not required to submit documents for these assessments; the design goal is that they are frictionless and, for most people, invisible.
That sits above the existing light-touch financial vulnerability check, which applies at £150 net deposits per rolling 30 days and looks only at public records such as county court judgments, bankruptcies and individual voluntary arrangements.
The check that does ask for paperwork
Operators have a separate anti-money-laundering duty, and under that they can ask you for payslips, bank statements or other evidence of where your money came from. There is no single national trigger for it — each licensee sets its own risk thresholds.
So when a player says they were 'hit with an affordability check and asked for bank statements', that is almost always source of funds, not a financial risk assessment. The two are frequently conflated and the difference matters, because only one of them should ever land in your inbox as a document request.
Source: Gambling Commission
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Primary source: https://www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk
