The House of Lords Select Committee on the Social and Economic Impact of the Gambling Industry recently produced its long-awaited report, marking the conclusion of its inquiry into the social and economic impact of the gambling industry. It was the third major report on the UK’s gambling industry in the space of three weeks and DCMS, UK Gambling Commission and Gambling Operators all received criticism in various guises.  

Affordability featured prominently throughout the report. Whatever the ultimate legislative outcomes, this report is likely to be given serious weight during the anticipated forthcoming government review of the Gambling Act 2005.

Commenting on the Select Committee’s report and with specific reference to affordability, Neil McArthur (Chief Executive of the Gambling Commission) has said: “In the weeks ahead, we will be publishing plans to remove potentially addictive features in games, further improve customer interaction and strengthen affordability checks”.

At LendingMetrics, we know that affordability plays an essential part in understanding the net amount a customer can afford to spend. We have integrated data feeds from an array of sources to enable over 200 business to run automated affordability decisions based on each company’s own preferred affordability decisioning criteria.

We have worked alongside our customers to help build their affordability rules to enable an automated led decision in seconds as opposed to a manual review of bank statements and other data which can take hours. Our Auto Decision Platform (ADP) has revolutionised the industry, allowing our clients to build, edit and deploy their own decision strategy in real time. What’s more, the automated process can also work alongside manual reviews where required. Linked customer betting data can be integrated with the affordability decisioning, along with responsible gambling related triggers such as bet frequency and unusual betting spend or volumes.

Whilst the regulatory requirements being placed on operators are becoming more stringent, if past experience is anything to go by in other sectors, this phase of new regulation will simply be the first of many. Over time, regulators look at how effective their measures have been and how operators have either complied with or “worked around” the rules. As was the case in the PayDay lending market, the regulations were revised and tightened many times over several years. In such a fluid environment it is important for operators to be able to evolve and adapt quickly and seamlessly to new regulatory requirements.  

Providers are rushing to market with novel solutions to individual operator challenges, however the truth is, no one data source, affordability score or KYC check will be sufficient in isolation, they need to be orchestrated as part of a joined-up approach. We would even go so far as to say that some of the solutions have yet to be created, not least because the first phase of regulations are yet to be fully defined. That is why having an openly connected multi-discipline decisioning platform capable of pulling data from multiple sources now and in the future, is the only true basis upon which to build a solid foundation for regulatory compliance over the coming years. ADP delivers exactly that.

We can assist with these operational and regulatory challenges so you can focus on managing the core components of your business.

With decades of credit lending experience and an in-depth understanding of the gambling industry, LendingMetrics are able to support you with regulatory requirements whilst still maintaining your business modle. If you are a gambling operator and are trialling various affordability possibilities, are wanting to discuss how best to approach affordability or have yet to automate your affordability process, then get in touch with us today on +44 (0) 2394 211010 or email sales@lendingmetrics.com.

The full report can be viewed here.