Your online casino account

Your casino account is more than a login. It holds your balance, your playing history and your personal data, and Gambling Commission rules govern what the operator must tell you, when it can charge fees on an unused account, and what happens if it closes the account. This guide covers your account from day to day through to closing it.

What the casino must tell you

The Commission’s page on information companies must give you about your account (opens in a new tab) lists what gambling businesses must make clear, including:

• the transactions you can make, and the time you have spent gambling
• how to set limits on deposits or spending, and how to ask for a reality check
• what happens if play is interrupted
• the rules of each game, a description of it, and your probability of winning (see how online casino games are regulated)
• a player’s guide to each product an online business offers
• how your money is protected if the business goes bust (see customer funds protection)
• information on gambling safely and where to find support.

Terms and conditions must not be unfair, must be written in plain language, and you must be told in advance of any significant change. The Commission notes that when you gamble you enter a contract with the business, and consumer law, including the Consumer Rights Act 2015, protects you against unfair terms.

Your playing history

Gambling websites must give you access (opens in a new tab) to your historic account activity, so you can see when you gambled, how much you spent and what you gambled on. The Commission suggests using it to spot patterns, such as your gambling increasing over time. The technical standards also say reality checks should link to your account history.

The same page says you can block a specific casino game, which helps if you notice you are spending more time on one type of game. This is not possible with sports betting.

Dormant accounts and fees

The Commission says operators can charge fees on accounts you no longer use, but only under these conditions:

• at least 12 months must have passed since you last used the account
• fees must be reasonable, clearly set out in the terms, and reflect the cost of keeping the account
• the operator must try to return your money before charging
• it must remind you 30 days in advance that a fee will start on a specific date.

Fees can reduce your balance to zero. Separately, the Commission’s withdrawals guidance (opens in a new tab) says a business cannot confiscate your money because you do not log in or prove your identity within a certain time.

As an example of how one operator applies this, LeoVegas’s terms (opens in a new tab) (clause 13, read on 12 November 2026) treat an account as dormant after 365 days without a login. LeoVegas says it will try to contact you and return a balance over £1 to your last payment method. If the account stays dormant at least 30 days after that first attempt, it deducts a £5 monthly administration fee until the balance reaches zero, you withdraw, or you log in again. Other operators’ terms differ, so check the dormant accounts clause before you leave money sitting in an account.

The simplest protection is not to leave a balance in an account you have stopped using. Withdraw it first.

When the casino gets in touch about your gambling

Online gambling businesses do not just process your bets. Under social responsibility code 3.4.3 (opens in a new tab), a condition of their licence, they must run “customer interaction” systems that identify signs of harm, act on them and check whether that action worked. The rules have applied since 12 September 2022, with the Commission’s current formal guidance (opens in a new tab) in effect from 31 October 2023.

What they monitor

Monitoring must start from the point your account is opened. As a minimum, operators must look at seven kinds of indicator:

• how much you spend, and patterns of spending, such as binges, or high amounts at set times like payday;
• time spent gambling, including the time of day, for example late at night;
• how you gamble, such as chasing losses, erratic betting, or using several products;
• what you tell them, such as frequent complaints about not winning, asking for bonuses after losses, or mentioning the negative effects of your gambling;
• how you use safer gambling tools, such as changing deposit limits, repeated time-outs, a previous self-exclusion, or limits set so high they mean nothing;
• account indicators, such as failed deposits, using several payment methods, or regularly not withdrawing winnings.

Operators must also consider what might make a customer more vulnerable to harm, and act when they see signs of it. The guidance lists bereavement as one example of a sign of vulnerability.

What they must do

• Act in time, and in proportion. The action has to match the number and level of warning signs. Lower-level signs call for tailored steps, and those steps should increase if they do not work. Where it is appropriate, the operator should go straight to strong action rather than escalating gradually, and it can end the business relationship.
• Stop marketing and new bonuses when it has identified strong indicators of harm.
• Use automated processes for strong indicators. The guidance gives examples: an immediate block on further gambling, a block on further deposits, or a deposit limit, which can stay in place until a member of staff has considered the case.
• Review automated decisions manually in each customer’s case, and let you contest any automated decision that affects you. Where a decision made solely by automated means significantly affects you, the operator should tell you about it and about your right to contest it. If you do, a person must review it properly.
• Follow up. Operators must check what effect their interaction had and whether more action is needed.

What it might look like for you

The guidance encourages operators to tell you what they have noticed about your gambling and why, rather than just telling you what to do. You might get a message, a self-assessment questionnaire, a suggestion to set limits, or information about where to get support. If the operator is concerned and cannot reach you, the guidance says it may be appropriate to suspend or restrict your account until it can.

A message like this is not an accusation. If it rings true, it can be a useful moment to set a deposit limit or time-out, or to talk to someone. If you think an automated restriction was wrong, ask the operator for a manual review. These checks are separate from the Commission’s planned financial risk assessments.

When a casino closes your account

The Commission’s page “My account has been closed and I don’t know why” (opens in a new tab) says gambling businesses have the right to close any account, for reasons including:

• a risk of harm to you
• a breach of the terms and conditions
• a risk of damage to the business, such as suspected money laundering.

The business should always act in line with its terms. If you think your account was closed unfairly, or not in line with the terms, complain to the business, then take it to independent dispute resolution if it is not resolved within eight weeks.

Closures often follow identity, age or source-of-funds checks. Operators must verify your age and identity before you gamble, and they can ask for more information later. Our withdrawals and ID checks guide covers what they can ask for and when.

Closing your account yourself

You can usually close an account in your settings or through customer support. Under LeoVegas’s terms (clause 12), for example, you can close your account at any time. Any balance is returned unless the terms allow it to be withheld, but for balances under £10 you need to contact support to get it back. Bets on events that have not yet happened still stand, and winnings are paid once they are settled.

Closing an account is not the same as self-exclusion. If you are closing it because you want to stop gambling, self-exclusion is stronger: you enter a formal agreement, and the operator closes your account, returns any balance and removes you from its marketing lists. GAMSTOP does this for every GB-licensed online operator at once. If you only want fewer emails and texts, see how to stop gambling marketing.

Getting a copy of your data

The Information Commissioner’s Office explains (opens in a new tab) that you have the right to ask an organisation whether it uses or stores your personal information, and to ask for copies. This is called a subject access request (SAR). Anyone can make one without a solicitor, and organisations usually have one month to respond.

The ICO suggests including:

• “subject access request” as the subject line, plus the date
• your name (and any previous names), contact details and your casino account number or username
• exactly what you want, with any dates that will help the operator find it
• how you would like to receive it.

You can ask for everything the operator holds, but it can sometimes refuse some or all of it, and in some cases it can take longer. Being specific usually gets you a faster, more useful reply. The contact details for data requests are normally in the operator’s privacy notice. If you submit the request through a website form, the ICO recommends taking a screenshot first.

If you are unhappy with how a gambling business handles your data, raise it with the business first; you can then take it to the ICO.