Affordability in gambling is broken. Here’s how to fix it.

It’s time to admit we have an affordability problem.

Whilst operators - and regulators - understand the need to ensure every customer stakes within their means, the industry as a whole is incapable of making that happen.

And it is costing us money and damaging the reputation of the industry. 

To name only some of the most high profile fines issued by the UK Gambling Commission in the last 2 years:

• Caesars Entertainment UK  was fined £13,000,000 for social responsibility failings, including absent affordability checks
• Online casino firm Casumo was fined £6,000,000 for breaching anti-money laundering rules and failing to ensure that players were gambling responsibly, and
• White Hat Gaming was fined £1,300,000 over source of funds and affordability breaches
  

The whole process is broken. 

When customers register, we rely on what amounts to little more than guesswork to estimate what they can afford to lose. And when that customer passes a given deposit limit and a closer eye is required, we are still reading bank statements off paper before reaching a decision. In 2021.

As a result, operators spend huge amounts of money, irritate (and then lose) some of their most valuable customers: and as an industry we still fail to protect the people we need to.

Fortunately, all of that is about to change. Automated affordability through Open Banking is here. And there is no excuse not to change the way we work, save time and money, and protect every one of our customers at the same time. 

It’s our responsibility. As an industry, we can now take it seriously. Let’s do that.

The need for affordability

Most of us know that responsible, safe gambling is both good for customers and good for operators. That represents a welcome change from past attitudes.

To take one typical example from dozens, here’s Entain’s 2020 annual report: “We are determined to change the mindset of our industry, starting with our own Company. In 2020, we continued to work on making safer betting and gaming underpin everything that we do.” 

Meanwhile, regulators increasingly understand - and demand - that protecting ALL players should be at the heart of everything we do as operators. The only question should be: “how do we make that happen”? And the answer is “affordability”.

Affordability is simple. It means ensuring that every single customer can afford to spend what they do when gambling. In other words, they are spending only disposable income on entertainment, and gambling well within their means. That’s what we all want. 

Unfortunately, as it stands today it isn’t what we get.

What’s wrong with ‘affordability’ today?

The short answer to this question is:

“We spend a lot of time and money to get inaccurate information that doesn’t actually protect customers in the way that it should.”

The longer answer is as follows.

Today, affordability and anti-money laundering (AML) checks look a bit like this:

• The customer registers or deposits for the first time - and the operato