UK

A day that much of the industry had been awaiting with trepidation is set to arrive today, as the Gambling Commission confirms plans for the implementation of Financial Risk Assessments.

The first stage of implementation will see FRAs implemented by the largest operators, where there is high spend of multiple thousands of pounds over a 24-hour period. For most, this means £5,000 net deposits in a rolling 24-hour period, with it being predicted that only 0.5% of customers will hit these thresholds.

Once fully implemented in due course, Financial Risk Assessments will be applied to customers aged 25 years or older with net deposits exceeding £1,000 in a rolling 24-hour period or £3,000 over a rolling 90-day period; for those under 25, these thresholds will be reduced to £750 in a rolling 24 hours or £2,000 in a rolling 90-day period.

Furthermore, the GC has also underpinned that although the White Paper was put forward during a previous government, it has the full backing of the late..

Politics is once again taking centre stage in the UK as the country prepares for a new Prime Minister and the gambling industry sits in front of another hearing on gambling harm and advertising. No more regs: Baroness Twyford, who appears to have the patience of a saint, reiterated that the government has…

Stakelogic has been ordered to pay a £122,835 regulatory settlement to the Gambling Commission (GC) for breaching responsible product design standards related to the speed of slots.

Minimum online slot speeds have been in place for UK iGaming operators since 2021 and were part of several measures implemented to reduce the overall intensity of gameplay and protect consumers from harm, as research showed fast game cycles were associated with increased player risk.

The iGaming supplier was found to be running its slots faster than the minimum 2.5 seconds time gap. Stakelogic reported to the commission that its Tiger Temple 88 title was breaching minimum time gap standards as it was operating with 1.97 seconds between spins. Tiger Temple 88 was non-compliant from 28 May 2025 to 30 May 2025.

An investigation was then launched by the GC, to which Stakelogic re-tested its entire GB games portfolio, discovering a further 15 games breached the minimum time gap, varying between 0.001 seconds ..

The Conservative Party’s Nick Herbert has joined the long list of figures to hit out at the Gambling Commission’s affordability checks for the UK.

Speaking at the House of Lords, the former MP for Arundel and South Downs and Baron of South Downs called on Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy to revisit the “ill-targeted policy, which, after all, was not the government’s in the first place”.

With the speech, he has become another member of what seems to be an ever-growing list of people making noise to prevent these checks from coming into place, which includes gambling reformist James Noyes and Reform UK leader Nigel Farage.

The Gambling Commission are set to meet regarding the implementation of Financial Risk Assessments (FRAs) tomorrow, the second and most stringent level of its affordability check solution, but Herbert has urged for a halt on this.

“On Thursday, the Gambling Commission will decide whether to approve the roll out of affordability checks on online betting,” he said.

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Global tech companies like Meta and Google have been directly approached by Grainne Hurst, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Betting and Gaming Council (BGC), with a request to join the gambling trade body in its battle against the black market.

In an open letter, the BGC and its members underscored that illegal gambling is now rampant across social media, search engines, messaging services and digital advertising networks, easily targeting British consumers.

Hurst relayed that those who are at most risk of such marketing campaigns are the most vulnerable, those who have self-excluded, who are seeking support for a disruptive gambling behaviour – and that they’ve been preyed upon by illegal operators who are hiding in plain sight.

“These illegal operators are not part of the regulated gambling industry. They are not licensed by the Gambling Commission. They do not follow British rules. They do not carry out the checks required to protect customers. They do not contribute to rese..

While the eyes of the world will be fixated on the on-field battles during the FIFA World Cup, a similarly hard-fought clash is unfolding behind the scenes between licensed operators and the black market.

The brand protection company Corsearch warned that illegal betting platforms are weaponising regulated brand identities through phishing and fake domains to ‘funnel users into the black market’.

It was revealed that betting-related phishing scams often more than double during major tournaments, as the firm said that this figure rose 118% month-on-month during last year’s sporting summer.

This data is particularly concerning for the World Cup, which kicked off yesterday (11 June), given that the tournament is projected to be the biggest betting event in history, with $60bn expected to be wagered.

However, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime last year warned that illegal betting volumes could surpass the legal market based on previous trends, meaning the betting boom expec..