Keep me scared: UK Gambling Commission executive director Tim Miller has pushed back on “ill-informed” criticism of financial checks, while signaling openness to crypto payments and a wider review of regulatory burden.

• At the Ethical Gambling Forum held in Leeds this week, Miller corrected what he characterized as widespread misinformation of financial risk checks.
• He also revealed pilot data that significantly outperforms the original White Paper projections.

Better than expected: The headline figures represent a substantial improvement on the previous assumptions. Less than 3% of active customer accounts would trigger any operator action under the proposals, with the Commission stressing that recommendations would be “mindful of this important targeting of the measure at the highest spending accounts.”

• Of that 3%, the pilot showed 97% would receive a frictionless assessment, well above the 80% the government had estimated.
• Only 0.1% of active accounts would require an assessment and be unable to receive one in a frictionless manner, compared to the 0.6% originally anticipated.
• Miller noted even this residual figure could be reduced by operators meeting existing obligations on customer identity verification at onboarding.

You’re toxic: The pilot also supported the underlying policy rationale, he claimed. Customers in the pilot cohort were two- to four-times more likely to have a debt management plan and two- to five-times more likely to have had a default in the last 12 months, than comparable consumers in the wider population.

• A significant portion of Miller’s remarks dismantled what he described as a debate that has become “more high-pitched, more toxic, somehow” since the White Paper.
• He was unequivocal that the proposed thresholds “are not limits or caps on customer spend” and “are not ‘affordability checks’ by a different name.”
• He explicitly stated the piloted checks “will not even attempt to make an assessment of what each customer can afford to gamble.”

Serves no purpose: Most significantly for operators, Miller delivered a clear message on documentation. If the checks are implemented, the Commission will issue guidance that operators “should not require consumers to provide documents to assess financial risk following a financial risk assessment.”

• He went further, confirming that “failing to request documents following a financial risk assessment would not be a reason for regulatory action.”
• He added that doing so “would serve no legitimate regulatory purpose and consumers could rightly refuse to provide them.”

That’s told them: This is a direct rebuke to current operator practice, which Miller called “outdated, inconsistent and disproportionate,” of asking consumers to share bank statements, a behavior he said “cannot be right in 2026.”

• Miller stressed the Commission’s board has not yet made a decision, with recommendations to be brought forward “in the near future.”

Group text: If implementation proceeds, the Commission has committed to working with the DCMS, industry operators and credit reference agencies through a joint implementation group to develop a proportionate plan and timetable.

• Beyond financial checks, Miller confirmed that from July operators must immediately remove gaming machines if the Commission informs them the equipment was not manufactured, supplied or maintained under a technical operating license.
• The fuller consultation response is expected in the summer, with Miller signaling the Commission “recognizes the potential financial costs of implementing some of the original proposals.”
• It is a phrase likely welcomed by operators concerned about cumulative regulatory cost following last year’s Budget tax changes.

Hold your horses: In a notable opening, Miller revealed conversations with the Industry Forum about creating “a way for cryptoassets to be more easily used as a consumer payment option” for licensed gambling.

• He also flagged a planned strategic review of regulatory burden, while conceding pointedly that on innovation proposals, “it’s fair to say that there hasn’t been a stampede so far.”