Out of a total of 14,923,840 active customer accounts, operators reported 643,779 accounts have been restricted in some form, equating to a rate of 4.31%.

The UK-based Gambling Commission has done a deep dive into the practice of bookmakers placing commercial restrictions on customers, with a data request made in early 2025 to see the numbers from of the largest online real-event betting providers.

The request for details covers the majority of the market, with almost 15 million customer accounts involved. It’s stated that this “has provided us with important data on how and when commercial restrictions are being applied to British gambling consumers.”

The restrictions found include all forms, with the proportion of restricted accounts varying significantly between operators.

Stake factor reduction found to be form of commercial restriction

In most cases, it’s shown that a maximum stake factor reduction is imposed. This relates to restricting the maximum stake to a percentage amount of what is available to an unrestricted customer.

“Of the active accounts, 2.68 per cent were subject to a stake factor restriction. Of restricted accounts, 62.17 per cent were subject to a stake factor restriction,” Chief Executive Andrew Rhodes reports.

“The data shows some operators use stake factor restrictions as their sole or overwhelmingly most common form of restriction.”

The second most common form of restriction was account closures, with 2.23% of active accounts being closed for commercial reasons. This applies to 51.69% of restricted accounts.

Operators can also withdraw betting facilities from customers, without explicitly closing their account but instead by applying a stake factor restriction of 0.00. This then essentially prevents a customer from placing bets at all, with this type of limit placed on 0.83% of active accounts and 19.15% of restricted accounts.

Going forward, the Commission will be aiming to understand the role that commercial restrictions may be playing in pushing customers to illegal gambling operators and driving customer behaviors like ‘multi-accounting.’

Featured Image: AI-generated via Ideogram

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