Long time stars account holder. UK based. Last week Pokerstars ran a credit check on me.

Hardly played last week, certainly no deposits or withdrawals. Very casual player ~$50 in my account.

I believe they have to ask permission to credit check you in the UK, is it buried deep in the t&cs?

New regulations where they have to verify ID up front in the UK. It's a soft check, doesn't show on your credit report.

I lurk.
This concerns me because I have a CIFAS fraud marker on my credit file from about 4 years ago (Spent the same money twice, backer knowingly funded it to cover my makeup.)
I made a mistake during dark times but the bottom line is that soft searches might show this and affect my ability to continue to play on Stars (albeit micro stakes recreationally now.)

Is every gambling operator required to do this in the UK now?

Yeah I think so, they have changed a lot of gambling laws in the uk now, you can only bet small amounts on the fobts and its harder to bet online.

The change to the fixed odds betting terminals in bookies is long overdue those things are cancer. We are still one of the most liberal countries for gambling in the world. Look at it this way the land of the free is only just starting to legalise sports betting outside Nevada/NJ.

Yeah they are crack cocaine machines, ive done my balls in on those ****ing things plenty of times. Fair point about general gambling.

These views are in-line with those of Victoria Coren Mitchell. Here's an editorial she wrote for The Guardian (Aug 2017) describing the FOBT activity in high street establishments as "a stupid gamble on evil machines."

https://www.theguardian.com/commenti...-evil-machines

"Punters lose and lose and lose. And when they disappear, or kill themselves, or their child is taken into care and they start self-medicating with drugs instead, someone else steps blindly up to feed the monster. So, if you’re only allowed four per shop, open more shops!" -Victoria Coren Mitchell, The Guardian (Aug 20, 2017)

The £100 per 20 seconds FOBT machine limits have recently been severely reduced (to £2-per-20s). This of course is having a massive impact on some UK bookmakers, and could result in tens of thousands of employees being made redundant/laid off in the end.

UK banks are also getting involved in this facet as well.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-new...ative-14247680

IMO, the gambling industry is destined for sharp declines in relation to verticals (whether live or online) that result in widespread, verifiable negative social impact -- especially when said impact gets to a point where high profile editorials start flying.

As far as how this relates to UK online poker sites, my speculation is that customers of regulated, licensed sites approved by the UKGC can expect further such nuisances as regulators and financial institutions become more proficient with GDPR and other incoming guidelines, while shoring up inefficiencies in KYC/AML procedures.