The casino asked where your money came from
A source-of-funds check is an operator asking you to show that the money you deposited came from a legitimate, affordable place — with payslips, bank statements or savings records covering a stated period. It is a check on the money, not on who you are, and it usually pauses deposits and withdrawals while it runs.
Affiliate disclosure and risk warning
Every affiliate link on this page and in the header is a sponsored link to a partner operator, and we may be paid if you open an account through it, at no extra cost to you. That link pays us; it does not improve any decision, it is not a ranking, and it is never a recommendation to play. Nothing on this page is financial, legal or tax advice, and nothing here is a way to avoid a source-of-funds or affordability check, to satisfy one without the documents, or to predict how one will end. 18+ only. Every stake is money at risk and can be lost in full. The mechanics explained here — what a source-of-funds or affordability check is, what triggers one, the deposit and income levels operators publish, which documents count as evidence, what happens to an account and any withdrawal while a check is open, what your options are if you decline, and how long a decision should take — are general descriptions of how that scrutiny usually works, not a statement of the terms, thresholds or timelines that apply to you: the triggers, the evidence required and the timelines differ between operators, jurisdictions and regulators and change over time, and a decision is made by the operator, not by this site. This page does not name any operator and is not a substitute for the operator's terms, any regulator's rules or advice from a qualified adviser. Nothing here is a way to guarantee an outcome, a way to unlock a frozen balance, or a way around any operator's terms, any regulator's requirement or any law. Never stake money you cannot afford to lose, never borrow to play, and never chase losses with a larger stake. Gambling can cause serious financial harm, including debt and damage to relationships and mental health. Free and confidential support is available in most countries through national gambling-harm helplines, for players and for the people around them.
01What the check actually is
A source-of-funds check is the operator asking for evidence of where the money in your account came from. It is not a fee, a penalty or a seizure, and it is not a claim that you have done anything wrong: it is a financial verification step that a licensed operator runs to satisfy its own anti-money-laundering duties, its licence conditions and its risk policy. In practice it means a document request, a pause on the account while the request is outstanding, and a decision at the end.
It helps to separate the two things an operator is trying to establish, because the paperwork, the trigger and the timeline differ:
| Question | What it asks | Roughly when it appears |
|---|---|---|
| Source of funds | Where did this money come from, and can you evidence it? | At published deposit levels, or on a periodic review |
| Affordability | Is the money you are staking consistent with what you can afford? | After a period of higher deposits or losses |
The one-sentence version
A source-of-funds check asks where the money came from; an affordability check asks whether you could afford to lose it. Operators can run either or both, and both are triggered by levels and patterns rather than by suspicion.
02Two different checks, and why they are not KYC
An identity check (KYC) establishes who you are: name, date of birth, address, and that the person matches the payment method. A source-of-funds or affordability check establishes something different — where the money came from and whether it is affordable. They are frequently confused because they arrive as one request, but the evidence they need is not the same, and passing an identity check does not answer a source-of-funds question.
Why the distinction matters to you
If you have already sent identity documents and the operator is asking again, it is usually because the new request is a financial one, not a repeated identity one. Sending the same ID again does not answer it — and it can slow the review down rather than close it.
03What triggers a check
Triggers fall into three broad families, and knowing which one applies tells you what evidence will be relevant. Most operators publish the first family openly, describe the second in their terms, and run the third quietly.
Cumulative deposits cross a published band. This is the most predictable trigger and the one most often written into a policy page.
Deposits that do not match the profile in the account: many small top-ups, a sudden large one-off, or activity that continues past an earlier warning.
A scheduled review of the account, or a review triggered by a change in the operator’s own policy rather than by your activity.
What a trigger is not is a verdict. The bands are set by the operator and its regulator, they differ between jurisdictions, and they change over time — which is why a check that surprises you is often a level you simply had not read about, not a signal that something in your account was flagged.
Read the policy page, not the forum
The level that applies to your account is the one in that operator’s published policy, for your jurisdiction and at that time. Anecdotes from other players are a rough guide at best, and they become stale fast.
04The hold, and what it does not mean
Once a check is open, most operators pause deposits and withdrawals so that the account is stable while they assess it. That is a hold, and a hold is a pause — not a seizure. Your balance remains yours; what changes is that it cannot be moved out until the review closes, and new money cannot be added in.
- A hold is temporary. It lasts until the review closes, one way or another. It is not an indefinite state, and it is not the same as a forfeiture.
- A hold is not a fine. No part of the balance is taken as a penalty for being checked.
- A hold does not decide the outcome. The review can end with the account unchanged. Being asked is not the same as being restricted.
- A hold is documented. Operators generally have to tell you what is happening and what they need, even if the wording is thin.
05How the check ends
A review resolves to one of three documented outcomes, and none of them is a forfeiture of your balance. Which one you get turns on whether the evidence answers the question the operator asked.
| Outcome | What happens to the account | What happens to the balance |
|---|---|---|
| Kept as it is | The hold lifts; deposits and withdrawals resume | Untouched and fully available |
| Kept with a limit | A deposit or loss limit is attached as a condition of staying open | Untouched; the limit applies going forward |
| Closed | Deposits stop and the account is closed | Any remaining balance is returned to you |
The level, the evidence, the options and the clock
Four pages take the mechanism apart in the order it happens: what the check is, where the level sits, what counts as evidence, and what your options are when the request arrives.
06Where to go next
Work through it in the order the process happens. The level tells you whether a check was even due; the documents tell you what closes it; the timelines tell you what a reasonable clock looks like; the refusal page tells you what happens if you decide not to take part; and the myths page clears up the beliefs that cause people to stall their own review.
- What a check is — the mechanism, and why it is not KYC.
- The level — the published bands and why affordability is a ratio.
- Evidence — what is accepted, what is not, and why.
- The frozen account — what a hold does and does not do.
- If you refuse — the honest consequences of declining.
- Timelines — what a reasonable clock looks like.
Affiliate disclosure and risk warning
Every affiliate link on this page and in the header is a sponsored link to a partner operator, and we may be paid if you open an account through it, at no extra cost to you. That link pays us; it does not improve any decision, it is not a ranking, and it is never a recommendation to play. Nothing on this page is financial, legal or tax advice, and nothing here is a way to avoid a source-of-funds or affordability check, to satisfy one without the documents, or to predict how one will end. 18+ only. Every stake is money at risk and can be lost in full. The mechanics explained here — what a source-of-funds or affordability check is, what triggers one, the deposit and income levels operators publish, which documents count as evidence, what happens to an account and any withdrawal while a check is open, what your options are if you decline, and how long a decision should take — are general descriptions of how that scrutiny usually works, not a statement of the terms, thresholds or timelines that apply to you: the triggers, the evidence required and the timelines differ between operators, jurisdictions and regulators and change over time, and a decision is made by the operator, not by this site. This page does not name any operator and is not a substitute for the operator's terms, any regulator's rules or advice from a qualified adviser. Nothing here is a way to guarantee an outcome, a way to unlock a frozen balance, or a way around any operator's terms, any regulator's requirement or any law. Never stake money you cannot afford to lose, never borrow to play, and never chase losses with a larger stake. Gambling can cause serious financial harm, including debt and damage to relationships and mental health. Free and confidential support is available in most countries through national gambling-harm helplines, for players and for the people around them.
- 1This is a general model of how financial checks on gambling accounts usually work, written for adults. It is not financial, legal or tax advice.
- 2Triggers, evidence requirements and timelines are set by the operator and its regulator; they differ between operators and jurisdictions and change over time. Check the operator’s own current policy for your account.
- 3Nothing here is a way to avoid a check, to satisfy one without the documents, or to predict its outcome, and nothing here protects a balance.
- 4If you are struggling with gambling, stop and use the support routes named in the footer. Free and confidential help is available in most countries.