The UK Gaming Authority (GA) has had a disagreement with the Racing Post regarding a suggested risk evaluation document.

The regulatory body accused the horse racing and sports wagering publication of presenting a “biased perspective” to its readership. Furthermore, the authority stated that the publication “declined” to publish the agency’s reply letter to the report.

The financial risk assessment, also known as an affordability evaluation, has been one of the most disputed topics in the Gambling Act Review White Paper since its release in April.

In response to the letter, Racing Post editor Tom Kerr released a statement on X (formerly Twitter).

“We informed the GA that we were not willing to publish a letter if it misrepresented the discrepancies in our reporting as factual mistakes,” he wrote.

“This is precisely what the letter did. It simply repeated the controversial claims in the White Paper and consultation, without addressing the numerous concerns raised by Racing Post readers and contributors. In fact, it dismissed these concerns as unfounded.”

Credit Evaluation

The group has clearly stated in a public letter that the assertion that “a large number of gambling customers are required to provide paychecks or bank records when making wagers” is incorrect.

Only 0.3% of account holders will be required to “directly provide extra financial information that operators have already requested from some clients.” The GC also stated that about 90% of financial risk assessments will be conducted through credit rating agencies and open banking.

“Few remarks mention that these proposals only apply to online gambling,” the group noted.

“People often assume that credit checks will affect credit ratings and potentially harm credit scores. […] These soft credit checks will not.”

Earlier this month, the group’s chief executive, Andrew Rhodes, said that affordability checks have been the primary topic of the Gambling Act review consultation thus far.

Addressing “misinformation”
Rhodes recently said that the regulator has seen “a lot of misinformation… appearing in the media and on social media.” As a result, the group has published a series of Q&As on its website to “help respond to… the consultation.”

Last month, Rhodes criticized the “misuse of gambling statistics” to support specific political outcomes.

Key points of the proposals include “smooth financial risk assessments for an estimated 3% of gambling accounts.”

Its a wise move to conduct a swift examination of a fifth of accounts to ascertain if they are financially susceptible. You can leverage publicly accessible data to accomplish this.

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