Source of funds in gambling
Source of funds is the origin of the specific money you deposit or stake with a gambling operator, such as wages, savings, a property sale or an inheritance, backed by documents that show it. In Ireland, gambling providers count as designated persons under the Criminal Justice (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing) Act 2010, so establishing where a customer’s funds come from is part of their customer due diligence. You usually meet the request at withdrawal, when an account has moved more money than its verification covers.
How the source of funds check works
Since 2018, providers of gambling services have been designated persons under section 25(1)(j) of the 2010 Act, which obliges them to guard their business against money laundering. The Department of Justice’s Anti-Money Laundering Compliance Unit sets out the trigger: customer due diligence applies once money paid in by a customer, or paid out to them, reaches €2,000 in aggregate. Operators are expected to start tracking a customer’s spend from the point it passes €200, so the aggregate is counted properly.
Once that threshold is met, the operator must also establish where the money for those transactions came from.
The law sets the duty, not a single form or document list. How an operator asks, how much evidence it wants and how quickly it reviews it all vary between sites, and each operator’s own risk assessment decides when a request is raised below or above the line. A player depositing modest sums from a salary account may never be asked; a player whose deposits jump sharply, or whose stakes look out of step with stated income, may be asked early. The Act also requires operators to examine transactions that are unusually large or have no apparent economic or lawful purpose, which is why the request can arrive without warning.
Who supervises it
The Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland, set up under the Gambling Regulation Act 2024, is to take over as the competent authority for anti-money laundering supervision of gambling providers. Until the relevant provisions commence, the Compliance Unit remains that authority.
Where you meet the request at withdrawal
Most players run into source of funds in the cashier, not at sign-up. You request a withdrawal, it sits pending, and an email arrives asking for documents before the money is released. That review is the step where a large withdrawal usually stalls, and the clock on the operator’s stated payout window often does not start until the documents are accepted.
Typical evidence includes recent payslips, bank statements showing the salary or savings that funded your deposits, a solicitor’s letter for a property sale or inheritance, or a statement showing a pension lump sum. Operators differ on how many months of statements they want and whether screenshots are acceptable; what we check first is the operator’s own verification page, because the published list beats guessing.
Full, unedited PDFs from your bank tend to clear faster than cropped images.
Payment routing matters too. A national financial crime strategy published in 2026 includes a plan to require a closed loop, with payouts going back to the same account used to deposit. Many operators already work this way, so a withdrawal to a new Revolut or bank account can draw extra questions about whose money funded the deposits. The same strategy plans an industry standard for accepting crypto-related activity as a source of funds, which tells you how closely regulators read that particular explanation.
Source of funds versus KYC and source of wealth
Source of funds is often used loosely as a synonym for KYC, but the two answer different questions.
KYC, or identity verification, establishes who you are: a passport or driving licence, plus proof of address such as a utility bill. Source of funds establishes where the money in this account came from. You can pass KYC on the day you register and still be asked for source of funds months later, because the second check is driven by how much money moves rather than by who opened the account.
Source of wealth
Source of wealth is wider again. It looks at how you built your overall assets, such as a career, a business or a family inheritance, rather than the money behind particular deposits. The 2010 Act refers to both, and enhanced due diligence, applied to higher-risk customers, can require information on each. A pay slip may explain this month’s deposits; it does not explain a six-figure balance accumulated over years, which is why a request can widen from one to the other.
Affordability checks are a separate matter again. They concern whether your gambling is sustainable for you, and the documents can overlap, but the legal reason for asking is different.
