A very worrying trend is emerging for UK sports bettors could almost it impossible for Pros to be able to bet

Yes the measures recommended by the government to stop idiots gambling away their paychecks will affect every one else in the form of Affordability Checks with a recommended deposit limit of £100 a month 

Imagine that, want to open or reload an account and only be allowed to deposit just a paltry £100 can't even pay the juice   Bet the Lakers, lose that game it's one and done until next month 

And of course how are they going to know how you can afford to gamble more than a £100 ? Well you have to submit your bank statements in full so they can see every financial transaction you make from mortgage/rent payments to personal spending and of course whether of not you deposit with other books 

Refuse to submit your statements = Cant deposit, can't get down 

British horse racing/sports betting paper has been covering this issue for the last few months with more details and some personal experiences (will post links below)

This has resulted in a lot of British punters actually thinking of calling it a day including those who are 'professional gamblers' who are almost just exclusively active on just the betting exchanges betfair Smarkets etc

Thing is though these checks don't apply in the betting shops which are on every high street in the country, of course you can get restricted there too but the Gambling Commission probably think it's too much trouble to check every one that comes into a bookies but then what's the point of doing it online

yeah I know online is so controlled in the form of ID,s KYC paperwork etc in the shops you can hit and run incognito 

anyways worth a read on some of the links below 

thoughts welcome 

https://www.racingpost.com/news/best-of-2022/300k-savings-70k-income-but-a-200-monthly-limit-after-affordability-checks/554957?_sgm_campaign=fcs_ac017b2e36000&_sgm_source=N554957%7Cproduct&_sgm_action=search&_sgm_term=affordability

https://www.racingpost.com/news/latest/punters-views-nobody-checks-my-records-when-i-buy-wine-or-fill-my-car-up/596222

https://www.racingpost.com/news/latest/enough-is-enough-punters-detail-their-frustration-with-intrusive-checks/596241

title should read 

make it almost impossible 

another thing is the sportsbooks are now using these 'affordability checks ' to weed out small time winners and even confiscate winnings in some cases saying 'ok you won a grand on a £30 parlay but you deposited more than £250 this month with us and other bookies so we're going to void the bet because you shouldn't have been betting in the first place '

above example is based on what I saw on a youtube channel about the whole subject 

So bookies are now worried that if more 'dumb money ' gets taken out of the market, they will have to come down harder on those still left playing and winning even on an irregular basis even if it's only peanuts 

Pretty harsh for sure.

Personally, I would like to see the US develop some prohibitions to stop those who receive any government "assistance" from gambling either online or at casinos, racetracks or lottery retailers.

Certainly comes off authoritarian and an infringement of peoples rights but what the hell "it's for their own good" as a good dictator would probably say. 

@Mark_The_Narc

 I remember some guy in the politics forum suggested something like that about 10 years ago 

then again if someone on welfare has a big win they will most probably get off govt assistance  

I saw an article where Australia (New South Wales in particular) is trying to bring in cashless slot machines which will only take a preloaded form of 'gaming debit card' which will have losses capped, again probably only one card per person but I'm sure people could have friends and family sign up and 'borrow' their cards to get around this 

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jan/17/the-rest-of-the-world-is-in-disbelief-at-what-the-gambling-industry-has-pulled-off-in-australia-we-need-real-reform

This will only drive the action underground again,,,think prohibition,,,people never stopped drinking, the criminals only had to be more creative about doing business...same will happen here.

Practically anyone nowadays can affiliate themselves with a template type sports book and become a bookie.

However, a simple fix to all this is having to provide your social insurance number upon signing up,,,from that moment forward, the books will know exactly what your financial state looks like, and if you lose a specific amount based on their algorithms for loss tolerance over a specific time period, then perhaps that site will put your account on hold for a predetermined amount to time. But then the degen will just jump to the next book and do the same thing and on and on.

There is no solution for a government to "control people's gambling"...it's an addiction for most and you will never see the Brits or any other civilized country draft a law that states any one can purchase X amount of meth until they are cut off, or are required to give their bank statements in order to purchase ayeyo. 

Crazy world of complete micro management for the low educated masses...such a waste of time or effort. Adults make adult choices and must deal with adult consequences. Life doesn't offer stress dogs to everyone.

@packersbackers

 Actually amongst the documents that books are asking for is your P60 ( a Tax statement that gives your annual income and tax details which has your national insurance number on it)

As you mentioned about jumping from one book to the next one thing that could hinder this would be having your name and NI number going on to a central database which all the books have access to
Say for instance they know you have accounts with Bet365,Betfred,Will Hills etc and will know if such and such a bookie refused you a deposit because the database shows you're already loaded up £400 with 4 different bookies so far this month

Basically the UK is one of the most liberal and progressive places for sports bettors dozens of regulated and legal online books to choose from, no tax on winnings, multiple bookie shops in every town in the country and it would be a shame to see that change 

You almost have to do a fegusen challenge

He is a professor of gaming .for profit in California.

He issues a challenge of turning a freetill into 10k using tesas hold em as a medium in full tilt.

It dealt with bankroll dynamics max bet for said sum. When to remove when to stay.

How to deal with financial responsibility ECT...

He dealt with a 1%of bank roll or min buying and a withdrawal of coins to further the st Jude foundation..what he did with his earnings...

But he is an actual Dr. And teaches or use to in Southern California. He also placed 2nd in world series of poker main event.

Here are the results of a survey done by betting news publication The Racing Post 

https://www.racingpost.com/news/gambling-review/the-big-punting-survey-one-in-six-have-already-been-hit-with-affordability-checks-aqOWc4d32KPu/

interesting results   especially worrying if you're a heavy hitter betting more than £500 a game meaning that it will be a 50/50 chance that you will have to show income returns and bank statements which will be scrutinised by some minion at a sportsbook  

Big horse racing festival at Cheltenham starting tomorrow and they were hoping to have all of this resolved in time for it