Writing in a blog post, Helen Rhodes, director of major policy projects and evaluation, said the update aims to provide greater insight into how assessments could be delivered “in a frictionless manner” and how they might operators in identifying the severity of customer’s financial difficulties.
The checks are widely considered to be the most controversial of the government’s wave of responsible gaming reforms, and have resulted in warnings of potentially dire impacts on the horse racing sector.
Financial risk assessments are designed to be more targeted than affordability checks, which the Commission has clarified it is not proposing, and would not affect a customer’s credit score.
The pilot has been conducted in three stages, using historic data from major operators and three credit reference agencies. No consumers have been directly impacted.
Stage two involved approximately 1.7 million risk assessments across 860,000 s.Financial risk assessments 97% frictionless
Of these, 97% were completed in a frictionless manner, up from 95% in stage one and well above the 80% rate projected in the 2023 government white paper.
The update said: “If the proposed thresholds from the Commission’s 2023 consultation were introduced, stage two findings lead to an estimated 0.1% of s that would both require an assessment and be unable to receive an assessment in a frictionless manner.”
The analysis also revealed that customers flagged for review were significantly more likely to exhibit financial risk indicators.
Data from two credit reference agencies showed that these individuals were between two and five times more likely to have experienced a default or have a debt management plan compared to the general population.
As the project enters its final analysis phase, the Commission will examine data consistency between credit reference agencies and how best to integrate assessments into operators’ wider customer interaction strategies.
Rhodes concluded: “These further findings from the pilot have helped us understand the extent that assessments could be conducted in a frictionless manner… we will now further explore data consistency across credit reference agencies, as well as how to operators.”
