Why layered affordability checks are so powerful

Geo affordability is one of GBG’s three individual affordability checks and your first line of defence when determining affordability. It will show you the average income of someone who lives in a given area, as well as the typical number of negative financial indicators people in that general location have. 

It’s a powerful and non-intrusive way of assessing player affordability, and a great first line of defence that becomes even more powerful when layered with individual affordability indicators.  

As with all identities, there are anomalies, and solely basing affordability on a postcode level doesn't allow for age and income discrepancies. 

Many adults, particularly younger adults, share their homes with family members. Some may live in properties with market values that don’t accurately reflect their levels of income. For example, a player could be unemployed and have no regular income but live at an address belonging to a parent with a higher level of income. 

Geo-affordability will give you a sense of affordability for people in the postcode area, but if you were to layer our individual affordability indicators over the geo-affordability check, you’d get a red/amber/green affordability status based on their financial turnover data too. 

That status will give you an additional level of confidence that the player can afford to gamble. 

Crucially, the individual and layered checks run in the background using the information you already get from a player as you onboard them, which means there’s no added friction.  

Perfect storm

COVID-19 has led to widespread job losses and reduced incomes as workers were furloughed. Couple that with extra free time and the return of sporting events and you have a perfect storm of risk for vulnerable players. 

Regulators are widely expected to implement rules that would make it an obligation for operators to check their players for affordability.  

A recent YouGov survey commissioned by charity GambleAware found that up to 2.7% of UK adults (approx.1.4 million people) were problem gamblers. Understanding affordability is key to protecting at-risk players and your commitment to responsible gambling. 

What’s more, robust affordability screening has the fringe benefits of enhancing your corporate social responsibility (CSR) and creating a Single Customer View (CSR), as explained in this blog post. 

To learn more, join us on August 6th for an EGR webinar where we'll be talking about our Affordability Solution alongside our partner Equifax. Click here to register.