The Gambling Commission isn't protecting punters, it's just providing them with an even greater test of discipline

Clumsy gambling regulation lends itself well to unintended consequences and, while much of the attention has been on the inevitable black market boom in the UK, the pitfalls that affordability checks will create with licensed operators are similarly perilous for punters.

Stringent deposit limits might help the Gambling Commission sleep at night, but they are the biggest myth when it comes to protecting punters. Unless a problem gambler signs up to a set limit that will introduce a cap on all their cumulative deposits with every licensed bookmaker, similar to a national self-exclusion register, it is completely ineffective and serves as mere window dressing for a bookmaker's safer gambling section.

If a problem gambler has hit the threshold of limits with one bookmaker, there are hundreds of other operators they can exhaust within minutes.

However, perhaps more importantly – as I'm convinced this repercussion has the potential to challenge healthy punters in a way perhaps they have not been before – inflexible deposit limits discourage withdrawals.

If I'm a casual punter who has had a busy and losing Cheltenham and Aintree to the point where I've reached my net deposit limit of £2,000 in 90 days, but have hit the forecast in the Grand National and landed a tidy sum, why would I withdraw?

I might withdraw enough to replenish my net deposit limit, but I'm leaving any excess in my account given the rigmarole that's involved in depositing. The more I deposit, the more triggers I hit, the more documentation they require, the more friction it creates and the more obstacles I face to place a bet. The advice will be to leave the money in there.

That is just going to increase temptation not to bet responsibly. The money is there when a nap gets nutted on the line, it's there sitting beside a virtual casino when someone comes home from the pub at 3am, it's there when someone is bored on a three-hour train journey or when they're angry, depressed or lonely.

It takes a lot more consideration to deposit money than to bet using funds in your account.

Oscar Wilde wrote that the only way to rid yourself of temptation is to yield to it. These measures from the Gambling Commission encourage the hoarding of winnings and, rather than protect punters, it is going to really test their mettle and discipline.

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The Gambling Commission has form when it comes to burying inconvenient evidence – it can't be given free rein over affordability checks 

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