Financial vulnerability checks (FVCs) became a requirement for UK online gambling operators on 30 August 2024. The threshold started at £500 of net deposits in a rolling 30 days and fell to £150 on 28 February 2025, replacing the original level rather than sitting alongside it. In May 2026 the Gambling Commission published its first findings on how the checks work in practice.
What an FVC checks
An FVC is a light-touch search of public records for signs of serious financial difficulty. Under social responsibility code 3.4.4, the check must cover bankruptcy orders, county court judgments, individual voluntary arrangements, High Court judgments, administration orders and debt relief orders, or their equivalents. It is triggered when a customer's deposits minus withdrawals exceed £150 in a rolling 30 days.
It is not a credit check. The Commission has said credit reference data may not be shared as part of an FVC, and that the checks cannot pick up financial stress such as defaults or arrears. They are designed to find people in the most serious situations, such as bankruptcy.
When a check does find something, the operator must weigh it against everything else it knows about the customer, take proportionate action and record its reasons.
The Commission's first findings
The Commission's blog of 14 May 2026 draws on a data request to operators serving about 90% of consumers in Great Britain. It covers the first three months of the requirement, when the threshold was still £500.
On average, operators ran checks on 7% of their active customer accounts in that period. Results came back quickly: 78% within ten minutes and a further 10% within two hours. Most operators (63%) ran the check when a customer reached the threshold, while 36% did so earlier, for example at registration or first deposit.
Many operators were already doing this voluntarily: 68% had some form of FVC for years before it became mandatory, and another 26% introduced one in anticipation of the rules. Most said the checks gave them useful extra information. A small number reported customer frustration, and the Commission reminded operators that a single county court judgment, which can relate to a small or disputed debt, does not require automated steps such as stopping an account.
Next steps: £150 data and risk assessments
The May 2026 findings do not cover the £150 threshold. The Commission plans further research over a longer period, including through NatCen's wider evaluation of the Gambling Act review measures, and will publish a full findings report.
FVCs are separate from Financial Risk Assessments, which the Commission confirmed on 7 July 2026. Those will start with the largest operators, at net deposits over £5,000 in 24 hours for customers aged 25 and over or £2,500 for under-25s, and no start date has been set. Our affordability checks explainer covers both.
For most players an FVC is invisible unless it finds a serious public record. Deposit limits and GamStop self-exclusion remain available at every UK-licensed online casino, whatever your deposits.
Updated 23 September 2026: corrected the threshold history (£150 replaced £500 on 28 February 2025) and removed unverified supervisory figures, checked against Gambling Commission guidance.
