The questions people actually ask
Eight direct answers on what a source-of-funds check is, how it differs from KYC, why an account freezes, what triggers one, what documents count, what happens if you decline, and how long it should take.
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01Direct answers
What is a source-of-funds check?
It is an operator asking you to show where the money you deposited came from — typically with payslips, bank statements, a tax return or savings records covering a stated period. It is a financial check on the money, separate from an identity (KYC) check on who you are, and it is usually required by the operator’s licence conditions or its own risk policy rather than by anything you did wrong.
What is the difference between source of funds and affordability?
Source of funds asks where the money came from and whether you can evidence it. Affordability asks whether the money you are staking is consistent with your income and outgoings, so it is a ratio rather than a fixed sum. An operator can run either, or both, and affordability questions usually appear after a period of higher deposits or losses rather than at a single threshold.
Why is my account frozen pending checks?
An operator that has opened a check will usually pause deposits and withdrawals until it closes, because it needs a stable picture of the account. A hold is a pause, not a seizure: your balance stays yours, and the review resolves to keeping the account, keeping it with a limit attached, or closing it and returning the balance. What a hold does not do is entitle the operator to take the balance.
How much can I deposit before a source-of-funds check starts?
There is no single figure. Operators publish trigger bands rather than exact lines, and many begin lighter checks in the low thousands of cumulative deposits while deeper reviews commonly sit higher. The level differs by operator, by jurisdiction and by licence conditions, and it changes over time, so the only reliable source for a given account is that operator’s published policy.
What documents count as evidence of source of funds?
Evidence that ties income or savings to your name over a defined period: recent payslips, bank statements, a tax return or tax assessment, savings or investment statements, or a dated sale contract for a large one-off sum. A document that shows a balance without showing where it came from, is in someone else’s name, is undated, or is edited is generally not accepted, and supplying it can extend the review rather than close it.
What happens if I refuse to provide the documents?
Declining does not leave the account open indefinitely. The usual route is that the review is closed and the account is closed with any remaining balance returned to you. Refusing is not a way to keep playing without the check, and it is not a way to lose the balance — but it does end the relationship, and the operator may record the closure.
How long should a source-of-funds check take?
There is no universal deadline. What is broadly consistent is that the clock should run from the moment the operator has everything it asked for, not from the day you first noticed the hold. If a check has stalled, the productive question is which specific document is outstanding, asked in writing, and then a regulator or an alternative-dispute route if the operator cannot answer.
Does a source-of-funds check mean I have done something wrong?
No. Checks are routine licence and policy requirements and are triggered by levels, patterns and periodic reviews rather than by suspicion of a particular player. Being asked is not an accusation of money laundering, and completing it is normally the fastest way to have a hold lifted.
02Where each answer is explained in full
- What a check is — the mechanism and the two questions underneath it.
- Why triggered — levels, patterns and periodic reviews.
- The level — published bands, and affordability as a ratio.
- Evidence — what is accepted and what stalls a review.
- The frozen account — what a hold does and does not do.
- If you refuse — the honest consequences of declining.
- Timelines — the clock, and what restarts it.
Start where the process starts
The overview lays out the three stations of one review, then each page takes one of them apart — the level, the evidence, the hold, the refusal and the clock.