

Deposit limit rules will be altered in the UK, requiring operators to give players the opportunity to set more deposit and loss restrictions.
British regulator the Gambling Commission has amended the current rules, where operators are required to offer tools so that players can set personal budgets when they register with the operator, or when they first deposit money into their account.
Under the new regulations, operators will have to provide customers with the opportunity to set a deposit limit which will be based solely on the amount a customer pays into their account over a set duration.
While some operators do currently offer the opportunity for players to do this, such as a weekly or monthly deposit limit, it will now be a requirement for all operators to do so. The new deposit limit rules will come into effect on June 30, 2026.
Operators will also have the ability to offer different limits, such as loss limits or limits where withdrawals are also taken into account. This means players will not just be able to set self-restrictions on the amount of money they are putting into their account, but also how much they can potentially lose after that money has been deposited.
These amendments will follow a series of other changes regarding protections against potential harmful gambling. From October 31, operators will have to prompt customers to set a financial limit before they make their first deposit and give them the opportunity to review and alter their limit. There will also be a requirement to remind customers every six months to review their account and payment information.
Financial limits will have to be offered via text messages, and further financial limit setting facilities will have to be provided via a link on the operator’s home page and deposit pages. These must be clearly visible and accessible, and must be accessed with a minimal number of clicks. Any customer request to reduce a financial limit will have to be actioned immediately.
Helen Rhodes, Commission Director of Major Policy Projects, said: "Our work will help empower consumers to have greater awareness and control over their gambling. These further changes will also bring consistency and clarity for those consumers choosing to set deposit limits, while still supporting gambling businesses to offer customer choice for different forms of limits.”
The process of signing up to an online account with a bookmaker in the UK is becoming increasingly more layered. In February this year, the Commission introduced the lower threshold of affordability checks at £150 net deposit per 30-day rolling period, on top of the higher threshold of £500 net deposits per 30-day rolling period.
The announcement of the second phase of the tightening of deposit limit regulations also comes after the Commission’s recent publishing of the Gambling Survey for Great Britain (GSGB), which showed the percentage of problem gamblers had increased to 2.7% for 2024 from 2.5% in 2023.
While this percentage was an extrapolated figure based on 9,804 respondents, the percentage was significantly higher than the 0.2% problem gambling rate in the year to December 2022 published by the Commission from its quarterly telephone survey, which was replaced by the GSGB.

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