UK customer interaction rules

What the UK customer interaction rules say

Customer interaction is the Gambling Commission’s term for the way a gambling business spots possible harm and then does something about it. For online casinos the requirement sits in the Licence Conditions and Codes of Practice, at social responsibility code 3.4.3 on remote customer interaction (opens in a new tab). It applies to remote licences, with a short list of exceptions, and a breach is a breach of the operating licence itself.

The code is built around three verbs: identify, act and evaluate. An operator must have effective systems to find customers who may be experiencing harm, take timely and proportionate action when it finds them, and then check whether that action worked. The Commission treats this as an ongoing duty rather than a one-off check at sign-up.

This page is part of our UK casino bonus rules section. It explains what the code requires, how it connects with bonuses and marketing, and what it means for you as a customer. It contains no offers.

LCCP 3.4.3 paragraph by paragraph

The provision has 14 numbered paragraphs. The table below summarises each in plain English, so you can see where the duties to monitor, act and review come from.

The seven indicators operators must watch

Paragraph 5 lists the signals an operator has to use. None of them is a single trigger on its own; the Commission expects operators to look at them together and in context.

• Customer spend: how much a person is depositing and losing.
• Patterns of spend: sudden increases, repeated deposits in one session or deposits that follow quickly after losses.
• Time spent gambling: very long sessions or play late at night.
• Gambling behaviour: for example chasing losses with repeated deposits, or switching rapidly between games.
• Customer-led contact: what a customer says in chat, email or calls, such as complaints about losses.
• Use of gambling management tools: setting, raising or removing a deposit limit, taking a time-out or ignoring a reality check.
• Account indicators: changes to payment methods, failed deposits or other account-level signs.

The examples in brackets are illustrations of the categories, not a list taken from the code. Each operator sets its own thresholds in its own processes, which is why one casino may contact you sooner than another.

Why customer interaction rules stop bonuses

Paragraph 10 is the part most readers of this site will notice. Since 12 February 2023, where an operator’s own processes find strong indicators of harm, it must prevent marketing to that customer and stop them taking up new bonus offers. We cover this in more depth on our page about bonuses and harm indicators.

In practice this can look like promotions disappearing from your account, emails and texts stopping even though you agreed to marketing consent, or a message saying your account has a bonus restriction. The rule works alongside the opt-in rules described on our direct marketing rules page: a customer who has opted in can still have marketing switched off because of harm signals.

Bonuses do not make gambling cheaper or safer. A bonus changes nothing about a game’s house edge, and the Commission’s view is that incentives can increase the intensity of play. Our guide to bonuses and gambling harm explains why.

What action an operator can take

Paragraph 9 sets out a ladder of responses. The operator must match the action to the number and severity of the indicators, and must be ready to jump straight to stronger action when that is appropriate.

The right-hand column shows the kind of situation that might lead to each step. The code does not fix triggers in pounds, so treat these as examples rather than rules.

Automated decisions and your right to contest them

Large operators use software to flag risk. Paragraph 11 says strong indicators must be acted on promptly through automated processes, but it adds two protections: the operator must manually review how those processes work for each customer, and it must let the customer contest any automated decision that affects them.

If you think an automated flag got it wrong, you can ask the operator to look again. Explain your circumstances clearly and keep a copy of what you send. The operator still decides, and it may keep a restriction in place if its review supports it.

1. Read the message or email that explains the restriction and note the date.
2. Contact customer support in writing and ask for the decision to be reviewed by a person.
3. Give any context that may help, without sending more information than you are comfortable with.
4. If you remain unhappy, use the operator’s formal complaints procedure; it has 8 weeks to resolve the complaint.
5. After that, you can take an eligible complaint to the operator’s ADR provider, as explained on our complaints and ADR rules page.

How 3.4.3 links to other UK safer gambling rules

Customer interaction does not work alone. Several other rules feed information into it or sit next to it:

• Financial vulnerability checks: public-record checks when net deposits pass £150 in a rolling 30 days (since 28 February 2025).
• The financial limit prompt: since 31 October 2025 you must be prompted to set a limit before your first deposit, and our deposit limit rules page covers how limits must work.
• VIP scheme rules: extra checks before anyone is treated as a high-value customer.
• GAMSTOP rules: online operators must take part in the national self-exclusion scheme.
• Source of funds questions, which may come from anti-money laundering duties as well as social responsibility.

Credit-reference “affordability checks” are not live. The Commission ran a pilot of financial risk assessments, but as of October 2026 no decision to bring them in had been made. Our guide on how affordability checks affect bonuses has the detail.

A worked example of customer interaction in practice

Imagine a customer who has deposited about £40 a month for a year. Over one weekend they make six deposits totalling £600, play into the early hours and remove a deposit limit they had set. Three of the seven indicators (spend, patterns of spend and use of tools) have moved at once, and time spent has jumped too.

Under 3.4.3 the operator should flag this quickly. A proportionate response might start with a safer-gambling message and a call or chat. Because net deposits have passed £150 in 30 days, a financial vulnerability check is also due unless one was done in the past 12 months. If the operator’s process rates the signs as strong, paragraph 10 means marketing stops and the customer can no longer take new bonus offers, even if they had opted in to promotions.

This example is illustrative. Operators set their own thresholds, and the right response depends on the full picture of the account.

Fines for customer interaction failures

Customer interaction failings appear in most of the Commission’s recent enforcement cases against online operators. Two examples from the Commission’s announcements:

• December 2025: Paddy Power Betfair agreed to pay £2m over customer interaction failures, as set out in the Commission’s Paddy Power Betfair announcement (opens in a new tab).
• June 2026: Petfre (Gibraltar) Limited, which runs betfred.com, agreed to pay £900,000 for social responsibility failures, described in the Commission’s Petfre announcement (opens in a new tab).

Our page on operator fines for bonus failings lists more cases and explains how penalties and settlements work.

What the customer interaction rules don’t do

• They don’t set a fixed pound limit on what you can spend; operators set their own thresholds.
• They don’t require credit-reference affordability checks; those were only piloted.
• They don’t replace your own tools: limits, time-outs and self-exclusion remain your choice and take effect without the operator needing to spot anything.
• They don’t cover Northern Ireland, because the Gambling Commission’s rules apply to Great Britain.
• They don’t mean the operator will solve individual disputes the Commission’s way; the Commission does not resolve individual complaints.

Customer interaction rules timeline

What you can do if gambling stops being fun

You don’t have to wait for an operator to notice. Setting a limit, taking a time-out or blocking gambling transactions with your bank all work straight away. Our guides on how to set deposit limits and how to self-exclude walk through the steps, and our safer gambling hub lists every support service.

Free, confidential help is available from the National Gambling Helpline on 0808 8020 133, run by GamCare’s support team (opens in a new tab) 24 hours a day. GAMSTOP (opens in a new tab) lets you exclude yourself from all online gambling sites licensed in Great Britain for 6 months to 5 years. The NHS runs gambling clinics you can refer yourself to, and Gamblers Anonymous holds peer-support meetings.

18+. Gambling should be entertainment that costs money, not a way to make it. Decide a budget before you play: set a budget. Free, confidential help: National Gambling Helpline 0808 8020 133.