Affordability checks are not new. In 1190, an edict was made that during the crusade, anyone below the rank of knight or who wasn’t a clergyman was forbidden from gambling. Knights and clergymen were not allowed to lose more than 20 shillings per day. Monarchs were exempt. Anyone who breached this rule were to be whipped naked around the army camp for three days.
The Bible does not mention gambling as a sin. It does however, mention gambling twice; that Samson makes a bet with his groomsman and loses and where an officer of the Assyrian King makes a bet with King Hezekiah of Judah, “I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to set riders on them”.
From The Times of London, 2 April 1794, appears this article, which appears to be the first mention of taxing gambling heavily in order to control it.
“…. If justice is to be hoodwinked and gambling and sharking permitted, why not make it an article of revenue, as in foreign countries, and lay a heavy tax on it.”