Bettors Still Waiting for Bookmakers to Pay Out | Analysis

Depositing money usually takes seconds, and withdrawing winnings often doesn’t take too long. Sometimes though, the withdrawal part isn’t so straightforward.

On 21 October, the Gambling Commission announced a £900,000 regulatory settlement with L&L Europe. The online casino operator was found to have unnecessarily delayed customer withdrawals.

The operator restricted customers to one pending withdrawal at a time and subjected some withdrawal requests to additional manual reviews.

This settlement follows fresh research into consumer frustrations, as well as a warning from the Gambling Commission about operators failing to complete identity checks at the appropriate time.

The UK already has regulations already in place to protect customers from unnecessary withdrawal delays. So, why is this still causing problems for UK bettors?

Are Bettors Waiting for Withdrawals?

Withdrawal delays are far from a new concern, and while recent figures show that things are getting better, there's certainly still room for improvement.

According to Gambling Commission consumer trust research  that was published this July, just 49% of people who had gambled in the previous 12 months agreed that collecting their winnings was quick and easy. A further 33% neither agreed nor disagreed.

For sports bettors, the findings were more positive. Among those who had placed a bet in the last four weeks, 66% agreed that withdrawing winnings was quick and easy.

While sports bettors seem to have a more positive experience than gambling customers overall, 34% aren’t entirely satisfied. This is reflected clearly in the latest complaints statistics.

The largest group of complaints has always been surrounding withdrawals, ever since the Commission started collecting this data. Between July and September 2026 alone, it received 391 complaints relating to withdrawals and financial transactions.

The largest gambling operators do manage to complete 99% of withdrawal requests in 24 to 48 hours, according to 2023 statistics. Yet, with the number of complaints, and overall satisfaction statistics, it’s clear that there is work to be done.

Legitimate Reasons for Delayed Withdrawals

While delayed withdrawals are always frustrating, there are sometimes entirely legitimate reasons for the delay. As part of the UKGC’s licensing conditions, there are pretty extensive responsibilities that fall on sports betting sites. These fall into three broad categories:

• Customer Verification: Bookmakers must verify customers' identities, including their name, address and date of birth. Additional checks may be necessary if information is missing, inconsistent or has changed. Ideally, these checks will take place before any bets are placed.
• Fraud Prevention: Unusual betting activity, suspected account misuse or concerns about payment methods can trigger further investigations before withdrawals are approved.
• Anti-Money Laundering: Suspicious financial activity may lead to a request for source of funds evidence. This is to ensure money isn't being used for criminal purposes.

It is up to bookmakers to comply with these checks, whilst also ensuring that they don’t unnecessarily hold up the funds of customers betting legally. After all, operators that fail to identify suspicious transactions could face significant regulatory consequences.

In February 2025, the Independent Betting Adjudication Service (IBAS) addressed the issue in an article examining source-of-funds disputes. IBAS acknowledged that some customers suspect bookmakers of using financial checks to eliminate unprofitable accounts. However, it explained that such checks are much more commonly connected to operators' regulatory responsibilities.

There are also circumstances that are entirely outside a bookmaker's control. These are generally to do with payment providers, banking delays, or something as simple (but frustrating) as an expired debit card.

Whatever the reason for the delay, customers should always be informed why their money is being withheld. The only exception, as outlined in the UKGC’s own guidance on withdrawals, is where disclosure could compromise a legally required investigation.

Identity Checks Shouldn't Wait Until Withdrawal

The L&L Europe case brought to light some information that isn’t always apparent to customers. Under Licence Condition 17.1.1, operators must establish a customer's identity before permitting them to gamble.

While some operators do not ask customers to complete a full KYC until withdrawal, this is actually slightly outside of their licence conditions. In the case of L&L Europe, the Commission's regulatory findings, showed that L&L's procedures involved manually reviewing every fifth or tenth withdrawal.

Had customers’ information been requested earlier, then their withdrawals may not have been delayed at all.

Not long before this case, the UKGC published a reminder of identity verification requirements for remote operators.

Drawing on its financial risk assessment pilot, regulatory casework, and consumer complaints, the Commission identified weaknesses in how some businesses verified customers at registration. Key failings included accepting incomplete names and relying on partial matches.

The upshot is, if an operator could have requested information sooner, then they should have. The only exception is where further information (that goes above and beyond what is usually necessary) is required to satisfy other legal obligations.

The Commission outlined such a case in its 2024 guidance. Here, the operator accepted deposits, before investigating potential problems with payment methods. This led to a customer depositing £30, winning more than £1,000, and then having the payment delayed.

This should have been avoided by law, as a potential third-party payment issue was flagged on sign-up. Yet, the operator chose not to act until the withdrawal was requested.

So, if a bookmaker has sufficient information to accept deposits and allow someone to place bets, why might it suddenly require substantially more information when that customer wants to withdraw?

Legitimate reasons include a customer's betting or payment activity changing. However, where the issue relates to information that was missing from registration, the argument for delaying payment is much weaker.

For bookmakers, the challenge is to identify these problems as early as reasonably possible.

What Happens When a Bookmaker Can't Pay?

While the vast majority of withdrawals are a result of failed identity verification or additional compliance checks, some aren’t.

Recent developments involving sportsbook operators BresBet and Bet St George illustrate the other side of this problem.

On 28 August, the Gambling Commission suspended both operators' licences. This followed suspected social responsibility and anti-money laundering failings, with both companies surrendering their licences on 4 September.

Importantly, the original suspensions did not prevent customers from accessing their accounts or withdrawing funds. However, on 30 September, the Commission confirmed that some BresBet customers were still experiencing withdrawal difficulties.

These circumstances are different from a functioning bookmaker delaying a withdrawal while conducting additional checks. Yet, they highlight another potential concern for sports bettors: what happens to their money if a betting operator closes?

Under Gambling Commission rules, licensed online bookmakers must keep customer funds in separate accounts. But, this doesn't automatically guarantee that customers will recover their money if the business becomes insolvent.

Operators must disclose whether customer funds have no protection, medium protection, or high protection. Since October 2025, those offering no insolvency protection have also been required to remind customers of this every six months.

Unlike money held in eligible bank accounts, betting balances aren't automatically protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.

This makes it exceptionally important to choose operators with at least medium protection, to ensure that if they become insolvent, you stand a better chance of being able to withdraw your funds.

Withdrawal Delays Are Improving, But Problems Remain

While customers do share continued concerns about delayed withdrawals, there's evidence that the Gambling Commission's interventions are having a positive effect.

In a 2025 speech, then-chief executive Andrew Rhodes revealed that 44.2 million withdrawals had been examined between June and September 2024. Of these, 96.3% were cleared automatically, with another 3.5% cleared within 24 hours. Just 0.1% took longer than 48 hours.

Complaints have fallen too. The latest UKGC statistics show that complaints relating to withdrawals and financial transactions declined from 2,405 in 2023 to 1,791 in 2025, a reduction of approximately 26%.

While progress is being made, the Commission's August 2026 warning and the recent L&L Europe settlement suggest that problems with verification procedures haven't been entirely resolved.

The minutes from a UKGC Industry Forum meeting in August 2025 may offer some insight into why.

Members acknowledged that gambling operators generally try to minimise friction when customers register. This can lead to more extensive documentation checks taking place later.

The reasoning is understandable. Requesting substantial documentation from every customer might not be necessary. Plenty of people gamble relatively infrequently.

However, this approach does risk creating frustration when customers attempt to withdraw their winnings.

The challenge has to be finding a balance between time spent at registration and time spent waiting for withdrawals.

What Bettors Need to Know About Withdrawals

Ultimately, you have the right to withdraw your available funds without unnecessary delays or restrictions.

Bookmakers can request additional information where there are legitimate regulatory reasons, but they shouldn't delay withdrawals to complete identity checks that could reasonably have been carried out earlier.

If a withdrawal is delayed, contact your bookmaker for an explanation. If the issue remains unresolved after eight weeks, or the operator issues a final response sooner, you can start a dispute with the help of an approved alternative dispute resolution service, like IBAS.

The bottom line is that withdrawals are improving and, as such, complaints are falling. When betting with UKGC licensed operators, your withdrawals should be processed promptly and complaints are falling. If you find that’s not the case, then services like IBAS can help.