Gambling withdrawals: rules, delays and transparency

Withdrawals are where players most often lose trust in a gambling operator. In Great Britain they are the top complaint topic the Gambling Commission hears about, at around 2,000 delay complaints a year. Several regulators now set rules on cancellation, timing and when checks may be asked for.

By Clera Dukuk · Published 24 October 2026

Coverage

Great Britain, Ontario, Michigan, New Jersey, Italy

Sources checked

24 October 2026

Next review

24 April 2027

Great Britain

No reversing a withdrawal. Since 31 October 2021, RTS 14B has required: "Consumers must not be given the option to cancel their withdrawal request." The guidance adds that customers should not be offered the option to deposit using funds they have asked to withdraw, and that operators "should make the process to withdraw funds as frictionless as possible."

Checks belong at the start. Licence condition 17.1.1, in force since 7 May 2019, requires operators to verify name, address and date of birth before a customer gambles. A withdrawal request "must not result in a requirement for additional information to be supplied as a condition of withdrawal" where it could reasonably have been asked for earlier, without prejudice to other legal duties such as anti-money laundering checks.

The regulator's expectations. In a July 2024 blog, the Commission's chief executive wrote that its contact centre "continues to receive around 2,000 complaints a year about delays to withdrawals", that operators should not keep accepting deposits indefinitely while AML checks are outstanding, and repeated the Commission's earlier position that "it is not acceptable for operators to introduce friction when a customer tries to withdraw". An earlier Commission blog (July 2023) said data from some of the largest operators showed around 99 percent of withdrawal requests completed within 24 to 48 hours.

The CMA commitments

Between October 2016 and April 2019 the Competition and Markets Authority investigated online gambling terms and secured undertakings from several operators. Its February 2018 announcement said players "won't be required to play multiple times before they can withdraw their own money" and that firms "cannot rely on vague terms to confiscate players' money". The CMA's guidance for the industry (August 2018) said there should be no maximum limit on withdrawing a deposit balance, withdrawal charges "must not exceed a realistic estimate of the direct cost of processing a withdrawal", and checks before withdrawal may justify a delay but do "not justify confiscation". Undertakings are not an admission of breaking the law.

Other markets

Where delays come from

• Unfinished verification. Identity or source-of-funds checks not completed at registration surface at withdrawal. British rules push operators to do identity checks up front.
• Payment method limits. Not every deposit method can receive payouts; some rules require refunds to the original card first.
• Manual review. Fraud, bonus abuse or AML reviews add time; good practice is to tell the player what is being checked and roughly how long it takes.
• Provider and bank processing. After the operator pays out, the receiving bank or wallet controls when funds appear. Visa notes that availability of its fast payouts to cards varies by institution and region.

What good withdrawal communication looks like

• Show the status in plain words: requested, under review, approved, sent.
• Say which checks are outstanding and what the player can do, instead of "pending".
• Publish typical times per payment method, separating the operator's processing from the payment rail's.
• Do not invite players to replay pending withdrawals; in Great Britain that is prohibited.

Questions about gambling withdrawals