Mortgage with Gambling

TimFisher1

Hi all,

I’m in an interesting and somewhat fortunate situation, however am slightly concerned at the prospect of getting a mortgage.

I have in the last 6 weeks only been gambling to try make some more money towards a house deposit. At no point have I been down money, however I’ve made 340 transactions to the value of £15,407.

I have gambled to the point where I only continue whilst I’m up. At the end of the 6 weeks, I had 86 refunds to the value of £38,448. This makes a profit of £23,041.

Since drawing the line on the 3rd of July I haven’t touched anymore as I’ve more than certainly reached the limit of winnings now, and I know this and have no interest in pursuing anything further.

I am however using the money towards a house deposit. I have a pristine credit record with various credit cards, loans and direct debits all paid immaculately and on time. I am not in any debt and earn £38000 a year. We have been provisionally told we would be able to secure up to £370000 combined as first time buyers with our expenditure situation, however the gambling is not factored in here.

I’m concerned however that providing bank statements of the above will ring alarm bells with lenders. Is anyone able to advise if this is the case based on the information above? I appreciate it looks excessive, however have always stayed in profit throughout.

Any comments/advice appreciated.

Thank you

Tim

london21

TimFisher1 said:

Hi all,

I’m in an interesting and somewhat fortunate situation, however am slightly concerned at the prospect of getting a mortgage.

I have in the last 6 weeks only been gambling to try make some more money towards a house deposit. At no point have I been down money, however I’ve made 340 transactions to the value of £15,407.

I have gambled to the point where I only continue whilst I’m up. At the end of the 6 weeks, I had 86 refunds to the value of £38,448. This makes a profit of £23,041.

Since drawing the line on the 3rd of July I haven’t touched anymore as I’ve more than certainly reached the limit of winnings now, and I know this and have no interest in pursuing anything further.

I am however using the money towards a house deposit. I have a pristine credit record with various credit cards, loans and direct debits all paid immaculately and on time. I am not in any debt and earn £38000 a year. We have been provisionally told we would be able to secure up to £370000 combined as first time buyers with our expenditure situation, however the gambling is not factored in here.

I’m concerned however that providing bank statements of the above will ring alarm bells with lenders. Is anyone able to advise if this is the case based on the information above? I appreciate it looks excessive, however have always stayed in profit throughout.

Any comments/advice appreciated.

Thank you

Tim

You are one of the lucky few that make it out of gambling with a positive balance.
Best to approach a broker.
Some lenders will be more open than others. 

sammyjammy

I would just give it six months before you apply

[Deleted User]

When are you looking to buy a property?  At 90% ltv then most lenders will want 3 months bank statements but there are a couple who will only want 1 or none.  
I would expect that level of gambling to be an issue to most lenders so perhaps you might need to go to a lender who doesnt request statements with the transactions on it.  

Not an issue generally as long as the broker is happy to take the case on.  I have helped loads of people with gambling transactions,  but ive also turned away a few where I knew I could get the mortgage but I didnt feel comfortable with the clients attitude and ongoing affordability (sometimes its obvious people havent stopped gambling, but have just got better at hiding it).

As long as you are open and upfront and the situation is as you state then a broker should be able to place this 

K_S

Deleted_User said:

When are you looking to buy a property?  At 90% ltv then most lenders will want 3 months bank statements but there are a couple who will only want 1 or none.  
I would expect that level of gambling to be an issue to most lenders so perhaps you might need to go to a lender who doesnt request statements with the transactions on it.  

Not an issue generally as long as the broker is happy to take the case on.  I have helped loads of people with gambling transactions,  but ive also turned away a few where I knew I could get the mortgage but I didnt feel comfortable with the clients attitude and ongoing affordability (sometimes its obvious people havent stopped gambling, but have just got better at hiding it).

As long as you are open and upfront and the situation is as you state then a broker should be able to place this 

@Deleted_User One problem might be that the OP says that they are using the winnings towards the deposit. So they may be asked about the source of deposit and the statements are likely to be looked at at some stage by the lender and/or conveyancer.

[Deleted User]

@K_S you are right that this might flag up even post-offer.   I havent come across many cases with source of deposit from gambling but I know of 2 of my cases cases in last 12 months that both took deposits from 100% gambling.  One was from matched betting, around £70k deposit from this, and the other a £300k deposit from a gambling syndicate.   

As with every case there will probably be lenders who dont like it and lenders who dont really care.  Gambling isnt illegal so in my mind the actual availability of the funds for deposit will probably be accepted but the act of multiple transactions in a short period is more likely to raise alarm bells with lender. 

There are lenders who accept professional gamblers and use it as an income so my gut says it would be doable as it is nowhere near that level.  It would definitely be one to run past a lenders business manager prior to submission and almost impossible to DIY this type of application

quick edit. just remembered a 3rd application i did a few months back with the deposit being gifted and the source was the boyfriend who won it at online casino, had bad credit, was going to live in the property.   That was a horror case but NWide didnt bat an eye at the source of the deposit.  Gave the solicitor a print of the clients gambling account and he even got a letter from them confirming the funds were paid out from winnings 

TimFisher1

Hi all,

Thank you to everyone who replied to me in light of this situation. Thought I’d just provide an update to those in a similar position. 

Provided all bank statements and usual documentation to our mortgage broker/lender and the mortgage has been secured. £290000 lent. £11000 from winnings was used for deposit and £9000 savings from my partner. Also haven’t gambled since and don’t have any intention anyway…  

Best advice to anyone else in this situation is - don’t gamble in the first place! But if you do and end up in this situation, be as transparent and honest as possible, and as long as it’s sustainable and you earn a suitable income, there hopefully shouldn’t be a problem. Drove myself up the wall with horror stories on the internet so hopefully someone might take comfort in that it’s still possible.

Thanks