The UKGC has underpinned that it is not within its regulatory remit to mandate how operators manage commercial liabilities, but has highlighted that some account restrictions are causing tensions with consumers.

The body emphasised that businesses are enabled to take commercial decisions providing they do not discriminate on the basis of protected characteristics. Nonetheless, being a successful bettor is not a protected characteristic in discrimination law, seemingly freeing operators to limit players as they wish. 

In spite of this, the regulator is eyeing a closer examination of the impact of commercial restrictions as data reveals that 46.78% of restricted customers are making a profit. This might not sit well with many of these customers, who may feel they are being subject to restrictions due to winning.

The UKGC emphasised the importance of transparency from the outset in the relationship between the operator and the player, as it looks to ease an issue that has long been a point of contention within UK gambling. 

In spite of this, the UKGC has underpinned that it will stop short of intervention when it comes to commercial liabilities. Affirming this, the group emphasised “operators are entitled to act in their commercial interests and manage liabilities. 

“It is not within our regulatory remit to mandate how individual operators manage their commercial liabilities.”

Nonetheless, UKGC CEO Andrew Rhodes has said that the body requires improved insight into how commercial restrictions are applied, to ensure the gambling market remains fair and transparent to consumers.

“The practice of bookmakers placing commercial restrictions on customers has long been a source of contention between impacted consumers and gambling operators,” Rhodes explained.

An overview of the data from the UKGC revealed that from a total of 14,923,840 active customer accounts, operators reported 643,779 accounts restricted in some form – a rate of 4.31 per cent, however this could include multiple forms of restrictions. 

Amidst a period of regulatory transformation for the UK gambling sector, the UKGC sought insights from operators over the usage of commercial restrictions on customer accounts. 

The UKGC warned that operators may be driving their own players to the black market through account restrictions, as it seeks to gain a deeper understanding moving forward of the impact of commercial restrictions. 

The UKGC also stated it is seeking to gain a deeper understanding into whether the limiting of accounts serves to undermine other vital controls within the gambling sector. 

It also wants to analyse whether account restrictions could be fuelling behaviours such as ‘multi-accounting’ increasing the risk of crime, protection of consumers and integrity threats.

The data detailed that the application of stake or wagering limits were the most prevalent application by operators, being implemented on a total of 62.17% of restricted accounts.

Further measures included account closures, which affected 2.23% of active accounts and accounted for over half of all restricted accounts. In some cases, operators imposed a 0.00 stake factor — effectively blocking any bets from being placed, impacting 0.83% of accounts. 

In terms of how far reaching the restrictions went, it was revealed that there was a significant spectrum being utilised. A small proportion of stake-factored customers — just over 6% — were limited to between 90% and 100% of the standard maximum stake. 

Another 7.5% fell into the 50–89% range, while the largest shares were in the mid to severe brackets: 29.43% were limited to between 10% and 49%, and 36.22% faced reductions to between 1% and 9%.

Source