Gambling Laws and Regulations Report 2026 United Kingdom
For operators, the service could help resolve compliance questions more quickly, potentially reducing delays or misunderstandings when dealing with licensing rules. The initiative follows industry feedback from operators who said they wanted a more consistent way to resolve regulatory questions. For operators, the appointment signals continued regulatory pressure on illegal gambling and compliance failures. (2) A notice must be displayed in a prominent place in each part of the premises used for providing facilities for betting, setting out the terms on which persons are invited to bet on the premises.
Measures to improve data on gambling harm
In at least some of these instances, customers in this country are incidental to the main purpose of the arrangement which is often to attract customers in overseas jurisdictions to the brand. In these instances, the target market is mainly customers in Great Britain, and the licensee is leveraging the third-party’s brand to expand its appeal. It is the licensee which contracts with any customers and is responsible for providing the ‘facilities to gamble’ as set out in the 2005 Act, in spite of any branding on the website.
How to contact the Information Commissioner’s Office:
All gambling hosted by electronic means and available to persons in Great Britain must be licensed by the Gambling Commission. Since 28 February 2025, remote operators have been required to undertake financial vulnerability checks once a customer’s net spend exceeds £150 in a rolling 30-day period. It should be noted that in April 2025 HM Treasury opened a consultation (which closed on 21 July 2025) on a proposal to introduce a single remote gambling duty that would apply to all remote gambling activities targeting the UK.
What do you think are the potential impacts of raising licence fees on licensing authorities? In order to produce a more robust estimate for funding raised, we require additional data on the current number of licence applications and live licences. The additional annual cost per premises is an average across all premises types and in reality, will differ depending on the non gamstop sites type of licence held. The additional annual cost per premises and the total additional annual funding for licensing authorities has been estimated using existing premises numbers.
Figure 23: Summary of proposed changes to Casino Licences (in bold)
The UK gambling industry requires strict licenses to ensure a safe and secure gaming environment. Age verification standards now extend beyond remote gambling to land-based premises. Operators must obtain separate permissions for each product category (e.g., casino, sports betting, bingo) and communication channel (e.g., email, SMS, phone). Clients trust Wiggin to navigate a broad range of legal matters, including obtaining and maintaining licences, international expansion, business acquisitions and sales, intellectual property protection, data security, dispute resolution and regulatory compliance.
The a represents the foundational legislation governing all forms of gambling in Great Britain, creating a comprehensive regulatory framework that replaced previous fragmented gambling laws. In the UK, gambling winnings are tax-free, whether you win £50 on a bet or £1 million in the lottery. Staff are required to check identification for customers who appear to be under 25 years old, replacing the previous threshold of 21 years. All gambling licensees must conduct test purchasing operations to ensure compliance.
People aged 18 to 24 years old can be particularly vulnerable to gambling- related harm due to their financial or personal circumstances and continuing brain development resulting in generally lower impulsivity control. The Commission will also consult on extending the duty in LCCP to require test purchasing by small operators in fee categories A and B, to ensure all land-based venues are subject to the same age assurance processes. We will legislate to strengthen licensing authorities’ powers in alcohol licensed premises by making provisions within the Gambling Commission’s code of practice binding, when Parliamentary time allows. To further support effective age verification processes, the Gambling Commission will consult on moving from ‘Think 21’ to ‘Think 25’ in their ordinary code for all land-based licence holders. This will create a clear distinction between gambling products for adults and lower risk products for children (such as crane grabbers or coin pushers) which have non-cash prizes or operate completely differently. We will legislate to increase the minimum age to play cash-payout Category D slot machines to 18 years, reinforcing The British Amusement Catering Trade Association’s (Bacta) voluntary commitment.
We have taken into account that these machines currently account for approximately two thirds of Category D slot style machines. While many welcomed this voluntary move, some respondents called for the restriction to become mandatory, while others like the Gambling Related Harm APPG wanted it to be extended to ticket-out slot style machines too. The distinction with ticket-out machines was drawn on the basis that while cash can be reinserted for further play (potentially facilitating behaviours like chasing losses), tickets cannot and have no value beyond what they can be redeemed for within the venue. Industry has recognised the concerns around slot style machines and in March 2021, Bacta members updated their Social Responsibility Charter and Code of Practice to voluntarily implement a ban on under 18s using cash out slot style machines. 18% of 11 to 16-year-olds had played on fruit style machines where you win tickets to ‘buy’ prizes and 10% on fruit style machines with small cash prizes. The tickets these machines pay out can be exchanged for a small physical prize such as stickers, sweets or a toy.
(c)facilities for gambling must not be provided in the non-gambling area, and (b)lobby areas and toilet facilities may be taken into account in calculating the non-gambling area; but the non-gambling area must not consist exclusively of lobby areas and toilet facilities, Have a gambling area, the floor area of which is no less than 200m², and The gambling business has made arrangements to protect your money if they go bust. All gambling businesses must make it clear which level applies to you. You can also find more information about different topics relating to money and rights when gambling in our guides.
The following legislation and policies are also applicable to operating licence holders. Personal Management Licences allow people to work in certain roles in a gambling business. Our online fees calculator can help you with understanding the amounts of your application, first annual and annual fees. The fees you need to pay depend on what you are applying for, and what your anticipated gross gambling yield (GGY) is.
We want all licensed operators to provide access to the ombudsman to ensure all customers are protected equally. The information that the ombudsman collates through complaints will also help the Commission in planning its enforcement activity and industry to inform processes and support vulnerable customers. The body would adjudicate complaints relating to social responsibility or gambling harm where an operator is not able to resolve these. We will look at how industry, working with all stakeholders in the sector, can create an ombudsman that is fully operationally independent in line with Ombudsman Association standards, and is credible with customers. Between Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) providers and the Gambling Commission’s contact centre, approximately 2,000 customer complaints per year relate to social responsibility, gambling harm and safer gambling. As the Commission’s process for requesting datasets from across the sector to support its regulatory purposes reaches a sufficient level of maturity, greater researcher access to this suitably packaged and anonymised data will lead to new areas of — and approaches to — research on gambling.
We would not object to customers being able to set their voluntary limits during these cooling-off periods. Some trade associations also highlighted the GamCare Code of Conduct for the display of socially responsible messaging, which they adhere to and requires that 20% of screen content displays safer gambling messages. The vast majority of responses stated that specific safer gambling messaging should be considered within cashless gambling. While such alerts will not require an interaction with a customer each and every time a threshold is reached, they should form an important part of the venue’s approach to customer interaction, alongside other types of markers and behaviours that could indicate harm. We expect some parts of the industry to oppose this measure due to concerns around its technical feasibility and burdens it would place on staff, particularly in a pub environment. This proposal will help build a picture of the customer’s play and is already standard in betting shops.
It requires remote gambling operators selling into the British market, whether based here or abroad, to hold a Commission licence to enable them to transact with British consumers. All online casinos must also display the net spend, essentially the profit/loss for the player, and the time they’ve spent gambling. In gambling circles, it has been predicted that 2025 will be a ‘heavy enforcement’ year for online casinos, so they need to be on their best behaviour. We have been provided with a number of scenarios in respect of which industry has expressed concern that GDPR will prevent them from processing personal data needed to comply with licence conditions and further the licensing objectives. In fact, the UKGC now analyses and assesses everything from random number generators, to the way online casinos hold player funds, to ensure that players won’t ever fall foul of rogue operators. These limits apply to all online slots at UKGC-licensed casinos and are designed to reduce the risk of significant losses from high-speed games.
Removing the test purchasing exemption on small business will result in additional minor costs for smaller gambling operators. Making ‘Think 25’ an ordinary code expectation for Gambling Commission licensees will introduce consistency across the sector, discourage children from trying to take part illegally in gambling activities and reduce potential harm that might be caused by early exposure to age-restricted gambling products. We will continue to monitor industry’s progress on this issue and will legislate to make provisions within the Gambling Commission’s code of practice for alcohol licensed premises binding when Parliamentary time allows. Pre-2020 test purchasing pass rates were also very low for gambling in alcohol licensed premises (Figure 19).
It has also argued that as bingo games are required to have a participation fee which creates a retention pot for future winners, operators are constrained in offering further choice of side bets within their session. While the pay-out per game can be variable, the participation fees create a pot in retained prize fees should multiple customers win. These additional games are compliant with current rules of bingo in that they require participation in the main game of bingo and the numbers are allocated to the customers. Licensed bingo operators already offer in-game bonus prize opportunities under current rules defining bingo. While there is an initial outlay, we believe this gives operators some flexibility on late night opening and falls within the discretion of local authorities, ensuring decisions are made at a local level.
Evidence from industry suggests effective age verification by on-course bookmakers is more challenging at high-profile racing events, due to the high volume of customers. This introduces an inconsistency as children’s risk from gambling participation is unlikely to vary by licensee size. The Gambling Commission provided evidence on the removal of the test purchasing exemption for smaller operators. The gambling sector has been heavily disrupted by COVID-19 and therefore test purchasing data is predominantly from before the pandemic. Since 2015, the Gambling Commission has required larger operators to carry out test purchasing, or take part in collective test purchasing programmes, to assure effective policies and procedures are in place to verify the age of gamblers and prevent underage gambling. The most comprehensive evidence on the efficacy of existing age verification policies and procedures comes from test purchasing at venues Figure 19 by operators, local authorities, the Gambling Commission, the police and commercial testing companies.
This means, for example, that operators will be able to site 2 Category B cabinet gaming machines to a minimum of one Category C or D gaming machine. The government intends to amend the current gaming machine ratio to allow operators to make 2 Category B gaming machines available to a minimum of one Category C and D gaming machine. This chapter outlines the evidence received in relation to the white paper proposal to amend the ratio of Category C and D to Category B gaming machines in arcade and bingo venues.
Most people will probably find this impacts their slot machine play a lot since so many people use autoplay to avoid the tedious clicking. In addition, all autoplay features will need to be removed from casino games. We think that many of these changes will help combat problem gambling, so we wouldn’t be surprised if they ended up being used in multiple gambling jurisdictions anyway. We expect a lot of these changes to roll out around the world, especially in games produced by British casino game developers.
In this Part, where premises are required to contain a non-gambling area— In this Part, in determining the floor area of the gambling area of premises, all areas in which facilities for gambling are provided on the premises must be taken into account. As a regulator, our job is to ensure that gambling businesses follow the rules when promoting gambling products and interacting with customers. The Gambling Act 2005 permits the advertising of gambling in all forms, provided that it is legal and there are adequate protections in place to prevent such advertisements undermining the licensing objectives. The Act (as amended) has implications for remote operators and does not impact the powers or authority of licensing authorities.
- (Optional response) i) Category B1 machinesii) Category B2 machines?
- Under the new rules, financial penalties paid by British gambling operators would be paid directly to the government’s accounts, rather than being directed to charities and research bodies.
- On the 17th of January 2025, the way that online casinos market to their existing players will change.
- Rather than wait for the government to get their collective act together, savvy bettors pointed their web browsers to reputable offshore sites in regions were gambling was already fully regulated.
- The evidence generated was diverse and was indicative of the varied positions of stakeholders, primarily arcade and bingo operators and licensing authorities.
Having considered the evidence overall, we do not think there is any justification for adjusting the thresholds. Some of these submissions pointed to the results of the age-verification test purchasing on machine games pubs in England and Wales, which was undertaken jointly by the Gambling Commission and Local Authorities, and found an 84% failure rate in 2019, and an 88% failure rate in pubs in England in 2018. We would expect industry to strictly adhere to this ratio and will set out detailed requirements in further consultation. We are mindful of the Gambling Commission and local authorities’ view that the 80/20 rule is difficult to police where some operators intentionally subvert the rules, for instance through offering game content on a very small device which may not be easily accessible to consumers.
There is a higher prevalence of problem gambling among people with poor health, low life satisfaction and wellbeing scores, and the problem gambling rate is higher among more deprived groups than less deprived groups. However, there are limitations to all of these sources including incomplete coverage and lack of detailed information. In particular, it found men were more likely to be experiencing problem gambling than women and that 16 to 24-year-olds had the highest average PGSI score of any age group.
In addition, as the maximum stake on these machines is 10p, these machines are less likely to be played in an area where there are Category C machines which have a maximum stake of £1 and can often be played at different staking levels up to this maximum. They do not have any age restricted areas as they have no adult-only machines. Bacta reports that this typically includes locating the machines close to a supervisor’s booth or other more visible locations, and they state that it works well in ensuring under-18s do not access the machines. As set out in the white paper, Bacta did not include Category D ‘ticket-out’ slot-style machines within this ban. However, as set out in the white paper, there are concerns that ‘cash-out’ slot-style machines share similarities with higher stake machines, restricted for adults.
The knock-on impact of the gambling White Paper on the horseracing industry will be minimal, but there will be a review into the current horserace betting levy to make certain racing continues to be appropriately funded for the future. The call for evidence showed that while millions of people enjoy an occasional bet every year without issue, particular groups such as those suffering addiction and harm, are at greater risk from certain aggressive advertising practices. Without the right support in place gambling can easily become harmful – especially for at-risk players – leading to devastating impacts on people’s savings, relationships and health. But for some people the availability of 24/7 online betting has compounded or created problem gambling, which can lead to life-changing financial loss and in the most tragic cases suicide. Technology has transformed the industry and people can bet 24 hours a day through ‘mobile virtual casinos’ in their pockets.
Some organisations concerned about the normalisation of gambling for children wanted to see the minimum age for all commercial gambling, including Category D machines, raised to 18. The activities with the highest participation over that period were arcade gaming machines such as penny pusher or claw grab machines (22%), placing a bet for money between friends or family (15%) and playing cards with friends or family for money (5%). Low stake Category D gaming machines have no minimum age for play, although members of the main trade association voluntarily restrict play to adults only on slot style or ‘fruit’ machines which pay out cash (see Annex C for a full breakdown of machine categories).
The Commission will consult further on minimum transaction times, limit setting functionality, staff alerts, safer gambling messaging and the display of session time and net position. We believe these measures strike an appropriate balance between regulation applicable to modern payment methods, consumer benefits and protection of the licensing objectives. To support the bingo club sector further we will consider exploring the use of primary legislation to provide a clear distinction between bingo clubs and arcade premises.
57% of men compared to 51% of women had participated in some gambling activity within the previous 12 months according to Health Survey England (2018). We will consider the case for measures proposed by the sector, such as including overseas races in the scope of the levy and/or increasing the overall level of contribution and/or basing the calculation on gross amount staked rather than GGY. The government has committed to review the horserace betting levy by 2024, and we are now starting that process. However, nothing in the Review affects the ability of operators to sponsor racing and the incentive to promote and differentiate their products will remain. NERA Economic Consulting, the Social Market Foundation (SMF) and other studies have assessed potential displacement effects of gambling reforms.