If you advise people in financial difficulty, you already meet clients who lost large sums to gambling operators. You can refer a gambling-loss claim to us as a single matter or as a steady relationship. This page sets out who tends to fit, how the partner model works, and what a referral can and cannot promise.
Who we are, and who we are not
Clinton & Co Advisors is a claims-management consultancy. We are not solicitors and we are not a law firm. We assess gambling-loss cases, build the evidence, and connect the client with regulated legal partners who take the matter forward. For an introducer that distinction matters: we take a case to the point a regulated legal partner can run it, and no further. If you want the client-facing picture first, our explainer on how gambling-loss recovery works sets out the routes in plain terms.
Who fits a referral
The person you refer should have lost money to a gambling operator and have a reason to think the operator fell short of its obligations. Some referrals come from debt and money advisers, some from support workers, some from solicitors who do not handle this work, and some from people who simply know someone affected.
Advice and legal-sector commentary point to certain patterns that make a case worth a closer look. A documented self-exclusion that a UK-licensed operator failed to act on is one, and GamStop participation has been a condition of every remote operating licence since 31 March 2020. Large or escalating losses with no apparent affordability or source-of-funds checks is another. So are repeated or inconsistent KYC requests used to delay withdrawals.
A strong fact pattern earns a proper look. It does not promise an outcome.
The honest limit on what a referral can promise
A referral cannot promise an outcome, and the reason is worth stating plainly. A breach of the operator licence conditions does not, by itself, give the player a claim. UK courts have generally held that operators do not owe customers a general common-law duty of care to prevent gambling harm, and a failure against the licence codes does not automatically create civil liability to the customer. A case is built on its specific facts and evidence, and no rule turns a code failure into a payout that can be promised. Some individual cases have been resolved, but outcomes depend on the facts and evidence, vary widely, and are not representative of typical results. We will not tell your client otherwise, and we would ask that you do not either.
The free routes your client can use without us
A referral should never be presented as the only option. Your client can complain directly to the operator, use an ADR provider such as IBAS where the operator is UK-licensed and a member of that scheme, and raise matters with the Gambling Commission, though the Commission as regulator does not award individual compensation. Where the complaint is against a financial firm rather than the gambling operator, for example a lender that advanced credit that was unaffordable given visible gambling, or a bank that failed to apply a gambling block the customer had set, the Financial Ombudsman Service can consider it for free. These routes cost nothing and need no claims company. We say so to clients, and you should feel able to as well.
The fee position, in brief
For the person referred, the initial eligibility check is free and confidential. Where a case proceeds, our regulated legal partners typically work on a no win, no fee basis, so the client pays an agreed percentage only from funds that are actually recovered, with the terms set out in writing first. Separately, where a matter is handled as a claims-management activity, the FCA caps the fees claims management companies in England, Scotland and Wales can charge consumers on most financial-services redress claims. The cap runs on a sliding scale by the amount of redress and has been in force since 1 March 2022. Your client receives the fee terms in writing before anything proceeds.
How the partner model works
The LASPO referral-fee ban applies to personal injury and death claims, so referral arrangements for gambling-loss claims fall outside that specific prohibition. Any arrangement must still comply with the FCA rules for claims management companies, with SRA rules where solicitors are involved, and with data-protection law. Whether an introducer needs a particular permission depends on what the introducer actually does. A simple introduction is one thing; carrying out regulated claims-management activity is another. We structure each relationship to match what the introducer actually does, and we set the terms out in writing before any referral is made.
What we ask of you as an introducer
A clean referral protects everyone, the client most of all. Before you pass a matter to us, make sure the person understands they are being referred and has agreed to it. We need their informed consent to receive and process their information, and we need it to be genuine rather than buried in small print. Do not present a referral as the only way forward, and do not suggest a particular result. If you are unsure whether your own activity needs an FCA permission, treat that as a question to settle before you refer, not after. Where you hold a regulated permission yourself, keep your own records of the introduction. We will confirm in writing what each side is responsible for, so there is no doubt about where your role ends and ours begins.
We handle every referral under UK data-protection law. We collect only what we need to assess the case, we tell the client how their information is used, and we do not pass it on beyond the regulated legal partner who may take the matter forward. If a client decides not to proceed, their information is dealt with accordingly. None of this is onerous, but getting it right at the referral stage saves difficulty later and keeps the client’s trust intact, which is the point of working this way.
How to refer a case
For a single matter, you can refer a case through our start-claim form with the client’s consent. For a steady stream of referrals, speak to our case team and we will set up an arrangement that suits how you work. Either way, we confirm receipt, run the free eligibility check, and keep you informed at the points that matter, within the limits data-protection law allows. Our wider guidance for clients and advisers covers the recovery routes in more detail.
Sources
- Financial Conduct Authority, claims management companies fees cap and claims-management regulation (fca.org.uk).
- Solicitors Regulation Authority, prohibition of referral fees in LASPO ss.56 to 60 (sra.org.uk).
- Gambling Commission, alternative dispute resolution guidance and the GAMSTOP licence condition (gamblingcommission.gov.uk).
- Independent Betting Adjudication Service (ibas-uk.com).
- Financial Ombudsman Service, complaints that involve gambling-related harm (financial-ombudsman.org.uk).
General information, not legal advice. We are not solicitors or a law firm. We connect clients with regulated legal partners.