Timetable set for consultation into controversial financial risk checks

Culture secretary Lucy Frazer told MPs on Tuesday she would be holding her department's "feet to the fire" as she outlined the areas contained within the gambling white paper which will go to consultation this summer – including the issue of financial risk checks for punters.

The government's long-delayed proposals for gambling reform were finally published in April with a number due to go to further consultations carried out by both the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and the Gambling Commission.

Ministers have said they expect the resulting main measures to be in place by the summer of 2024, and it is expected that financial risk checks will be among them.

Appearing before the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, Frazer said the government was carrying out the biggest reform of gambling since 2005 when asked about the further delays.   

Culture secretary Lucy Frazer appeared before MPs on TuesdayCredit: Richard Townshend

"We are not just bringing policy changes, what we are doing is updating gambling to the online age," she added. "Everyone now has a smartphone in their pocket and gambling is available to them.

"Some people have criticised us for the delay. I think it is really important that we get it right because this is the next stage of regulation around gambling."

Frazer said the DCMS would launch consultations on online slot stake limits, land-based measures and the statutory levy on operators to pay for the treatment of problem gambling. The Gambling Commission's consultations would include financial risk checks.

She added: "I can assure you that I am holding my department's feet to the fire . . . and we are making sure that we get out quite a lot before the summer. There is a very tight timetable to respond to that, then we'll be putting forward statutory instruments.

"Thankfully a lot of this we will be able to do through statutory instruments rather than through primary legislation so I am very confident we will be able to keep to that timetable."

Gambling Commission executive director Tim Miller

On Monday evening, Gambling Commission executive director Tim Miller told a webinar organised by law firm CMS that the industry regulator expected to publish its first round of consultations "before the schools break up for the summer".

"I think it is important to note that our consultations will be very much focused on how you implement the things that are in the white paper," he added.

"We won't be framing it in a way that reopens some of the debates which happened during the white paper process. 

"The white paper has in most areas set the public policy position and we won't look to reopen that again. Our focus will be very much upon how you implement these things."

Ministers have said financial risk checks should be "frictionless" and conducted through credit reference agencies (CRAs) or open banking, with requests for documents used only as a last resort. 

Miller said frictionless checks were an area the Commission and the DCMS had been working "really closely" on with the Information Commissioner's Office, financial services trade body UK Finance, CRAs and others to develop.

The focus has been on online gambling, but Betfred chief executive Joanne Whittaker told the event she was keen that frictionless checks should be available in betting shops too.

She added: "We are doing affordability today, we have to, and we are having to ask for payslips and bank statements which in a retail environment is not the easiest conversation for our staff to have.

"For customers the response rates are half of what they are in digital, so we see a much higher response to this type of question in digital than in retail. For me it is critical that we can access them." 

Read these next:

Understanding the white paper: what we know and don't know about the key issues for racing and punters  

'We have to be realistic' - Bettors Forum chair responds to the white paper  

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