UK’s Gambling Minister Paul Scully has added a new language terminology to the industry as he analysed the potential impact of the Gambling Act review with the Betting and Gaming Council (BGC). 

In his speech addressing the Council, Scully made it clear that new wording is needed to replace the phrase ‘affordability checks’ that has become somewhat brandished across the sector, as it does not correctly outline what the measure actually is.

“That word suggests that the government or Gambling Commission are going to set rules on how much people can ‘afford’ to gamble,” he explained.

“A one size fits all approach is not the intention here. It may be more accurate to call them ‘financial risk’ checks – checking that a higher than usual level of spend is not itself an indicator of harm.

 “I also think ‘financial risk’ is a more appropriate term as a consideration of financial circumstances can only ever reveal that one type of risk – financial.”

According to Scully, adopting the term ‘financial risk checks’ will further support the industry’s efforts of having fair, non-intrusive background checks for a bigger range of consumers. This was only part of the Minister’s wider argument that currently existing measures to assess debt and losses should be expanded to cover more areas.

Scully went on to promise the industry consultations “in the coming months”, where government and businesses will work closely together on a framework for identifying and addressing financial risks.

He said: “We want to make common sense changes to update the rules, preserving safeguards that do protect against gambling harm, but replacing unnecessarily restrictive controls with ones which make things better for customers and businesses.”