Authorization Exception Testing VS 403 Status

I've just added a roles and abilities system as detailed here: https://laracasts.com/series/laravel-6-from-scratch/episodes/54

Basically we add a global Gate::before in the AuthServiceProvider boot method, and check for the abilities associated with the Role, and by proxy the User.

public function boot()
    {
        $this->registerPolicies();

        Gate::before(function($user, $ability) {
            if ($user->abilities()->contains($ability)) {
                return true;
            }
        });
    }

HOWEVER, normally in testing I would do assertStatus(403), but now I find myself doing $this->expectException(\Illuminate\Auth\Access\AuthorizationException::class);

Is this a safe workaround? ... it doesn't feel right (yet?). I don't like the the assertion before the code, it also means that particular test is limited to that assertion, so I have to create more tests than I normally would.

Does anyone have any strong views on this? Is there a better way to test-drive this scenario?

See my example below:

/** @test */
    public function gamesCannotBeCreatedByGuests()
    {
        $this->withoutExceptionHandling();
        $user = factory(User::class)->create();
        $this->actingAs($user);

        $title = 'A random title for the database!';

        $this->expectException(\Illuminate\Auth\Access\AuthorizationException::class);

        $response = $this->post('/games/create', compact('title'));
    }