Staking restrictions and account closures - inside the Gambling Commission's latest betting data

Betting data from bookmakers released on Wednesday by the Gambling Commission reveals that nearly 650,000 accounts of customers in Britain have had restrictions applied to them.

Giving detail to an issue which many Racing Post readers have regularly flagged as one of their biggest concerns, the data shows that across 15 million active betting accounts a headline figure of 4.31 per cent were subject to restrictions in 2024 by gambling firms for reasons other than checks for financial risk or anti-money laundering, equating to 643,779 individual accounts. 

While the Gambling Commission did not supply a precise definition of "active account", the figure implies that 19 out of every 20 accounts are not subject to either staking restrictions or closure "for commercial reasons".

That is at odds with the findings of the Racing Post's Big Punting Survey in January, which found that 31.8 per cent of respondents had been subjected to restrictions on one or more accounts within the last year. The figure rose to 43.6 per cent when historical actions imposed by bookmakers were taken into account.

At the very least the discrepancy suggests that gambling operators are more concerned with managing their own risk and exposure to clients they consider to be well informed, with restricted customers twice as likely to be gambling at a profit compared with the overall success rate across active accounts according to the Gambling Commission data. 

Where the real value lies in the commission's work is in the detailed breakdown of the prevalence of different types of restrictions used by operators. 

The work identifies four broad types of restriction placed on customers for commercial reasons, with staking factor restrictions being the most common and applied to 62.17 per cent of accounts where the operator took action.

The next most common action was account closure, which featured in 51.69 per cent of cases. Gambling Commission chief executive Andrew Rhodes pointed out in his commentary to accompany the findings that 'staking factor restrictions' can often be a precursor to an account being shut down. 

A third action identified was the withdrawal of betting facilities, which in effect prevent a customer from operating their account without formally closing it – as was the case with 19.15 per cent of restricted accounts. Restricting customers in specific markets but not others was less frequently employed at 5.72 per cent. 

The commission survey delves further into the data on staking factor restrictions, which essentially offer customers a lower percentage of their desired bet than would be offered to an unrestricted customer. 

The figures here are extremely revealing, with almost 60 per cent of accounts restricted to ten per cent or less of the desired stake. 

Less than 14 per cent of accounts subject to staking factor restrictions allow 50 per cent or more of their desired bet to be placed.  

Rhodes pointed out in the introduction to the commission's findings that it is not within the regulator's remit to "mandate how individual operators manage their commercial liabilities".

In returning to the subject under the heading of 'next steps', Rhodes underlined that the white paper reviewing the 2005 Gambling Act places no "universal service obligation" – what in other jurisdictions such as Australia is known as the "minimum bet" rule, which ensures customers can have their bet accommodated to win a specified amount. 

Rhodes added: "It is not in our remit to mandate how operators handle their commercial liabilities, but we do have a statutory responsibility to ensure that gambling is conducted in a fair and open manner, to understand potential drivers of illegal gambling, and to ensure that industry practices are not having an adverse impact on the effectiveness of regulation. That is why as an evidence-led regulator we have undertaken this piece of work." 

Read these next:

False addresses, fake reviews and media sabotage - findings show length to which illegal operators are going to deceive punters 

'Everyone is losing out' - racing figures fear for sport in light of survey's findings over growth of black market 

Sign up to receive On The Nose, our essential daily newsletter, from the Racing Post. Your unmissable morning feed, direct to your email inbox every morning.