UK Gambling Regulation

Money and rights

Brexit did increase compliance complexity around personal data transfers between the UK and EEA, which is relevant for cross-border remote operators. The case illustrates that the Commission uses criminal enforcement for unlicensed provision, particularly where products resemble gambling but operate outside the traditional licensing perimeter. The government duty change document sets out the 2027 remote betting duty plan as part of broader gambling duty reforms. HMRC administers multiple gambling duties, levied on operators’ gross profits (stakes received less prizes paid out) or stakes, depending on the regime.

Taking this approach will quickly introduce strengthened dispute resolution for customers to help them, where appropriate, receive redress should an operator be found to have treated them unfairly. We also expect it will be able to provide the Commission with valuable data on operator and market practices drawn from trends in consumer disputes to support timely regulatory non gamestop casinos action. We will work with industry and the ombudsman to ensure necessary impacts to business are accounted for and the foundational aspects of the scheme are appropriately designed. While primary legislation would be needed to establish a standalone ombudsman and the requirement on operators to abide by it beyond doubt or challenge, ombudsman functions could subsequently be conferred on an existing body, such as an existing ADR provider, if it had the appropriate membership of the OA.

Although millions of people gamble safely every single day, the evidence shows that there is a significantly higher problem gambling rate for online slot games. The evidence also points to a stronger link between gambling related harm and suicide among young adults. To counter the increased risk of significant harm and life-changing losses from online slot games, the Government will introduce a £5 stake limit for adults aged 25 and over.

Replacing industry ownership, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the Department of Health and Social Care will work together with the Gambling Commission, drawing on public health and social marketing expertise, to establish the most effective messaging and how it should be used. The Online Advertising Programme will explore further mechanisms to reduce harm from advertising across all sectors. Certain types of competitions and prize draws which offer significant prizes such as a luxury home or car now operate online in ways which could not have been foreseen in 2005.

Behavioural barriers and friction should only be used to keep customers safe rather than impede them from taking decisions. This is consistent with the Commission’s rules for clear and accessible terms and conditions and the regulator will monitor operators’ compliance in this area. It is important that customers are made aware of the circumstances in which such restrictions may be applied and provided with explanations where it does occur. Tools like deposit limits can help people gamble within their means, but may be underused and not widely optimised for harm prevention. We will also consult on measures to give greater protections for 18 to 24-year-olds who the evidence suggests may be a particularly vulnerable cohort.

Please explain your answer, providing any supporting evidence where available. However, it should be noted that respondents were most likely to have spent their own money on types of gambling activity that are legal or do not feature age restricted products, such as penny pusher or claw grab arcade games. Bacta’s members make up approximately 70-80% of the market for family entertainment centres and adult gaming centres. We propose to move the industry’s voluntary commitment into legislation, making it an offence for a person to invite, cause or permit a child or young person to use ‘cash-out’ Category D slot-style games. Further details on machine types and permitted locations can be found at Figure 11.

As the premier gambling law, it dictates the protocols for casinos, poker, sports betting, pools, lottery betting, etc. We have also considered a broad range of academic and other literature on gambling harm and gambling harm prevention, including material produced in other jurisdictions, and publications since the call for evidence period. In addition to the direct impact on the levy of a reduction in betting industry GGY, we have also assumed that there may be an impact on racing’s income from gambling sponsorship and media rights, as operators’ income is reduced. The horserace betting levy is paid by bookmakers based on 10% of GGY from customers in Great Britain, betting on races in Great Britain, whether online or in betting shops. A number of submissions to our call for evidence highlighted the relationship between horse racing and gambling, including the importance of the horserace betting levy for maintaining the sport.

UK Gambling Regulation

Keep reading to learn how British regulators and other entities keep you safe from harm. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) published its gambling white paper in April 2023, which set out the government’s plans for modernising the regulation of the gambling sector. Google acts as data processor on our behalf, further information is available in Google Cloud Platform Service Specific Terms (opens in new tab) and Google’s Cloud Data Processing Addendum (opens in new tab). Further staking opportunities could be offered within the same game cycle up to the value of £3 for a total staked per game cycle of £5.Scenario CA customer aged 19 stakes £2 on an online slot game. Scenario AA customer aged 27 stakes £5 on an online slot game.

• These requirements exist to prevent underage gambling, which is one of the UKGC’s primary objectives.
• If you or someone you know struggles with gambling addiction, we recommend you contact the free gambling helplines like those operated by organizations like
• The new requirements will include provisions to ensure any consumer data is effectively protected and only used for the purposes of harm prevention.
• As the Commission has set out, experience has shown that such applicants are normally unable to provide complete and satisfactory evidence to answer the questions used to determine applications, including those to assess whether criminal activity has been a source of funds.

For bingo halls, based on a sample of approximately 60 percent of the market, it is estimated that the number of Category C and D cabinets in these venues will decrease by over 1,800. We received projections on the impacts of 50/50 for industry under the proposal outlined in Option 1. If it appears evident that the ‘available for use’ guidance is not working as intended following changes to the current regulatory framework, we will consider bringing forward secondary legislation to more directly deliver the intended machine mix. For example, numbers provided by the Bingo Association show that the number of bingo premises that offer mainstage bingo declined from 335 at the end of 2018 to 272 in March 2023. Challenges caused by rising energy costs are in addition to the longer-term commercial challenges faced by industry, particularly following the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the same period, the average number of gambling ads seen by under 16s more than halved from around 4.5 to just 2.2 per week, and the ads were predominantly for bingo and lotteries. The Gambling Commission’s social responsibility codes specify that operators should still apply the principles of the UK Advertising Codes to any content or media that falls outside of the remit of the codes. While ‘content marketing’ posts which do not directly advertise a product or service may fall outside of the ASA’s remit, they are a popular marketing strategy with which operators can drive brand engagement and loyalty. We want operators to make use of available technology to extend commitments to de-targeting children and vulnerable people and age-gating social media. In Gambling Commission’s Young People and Gambling report 2022, 44% of 11 to 16-year-olds had heard or seen adverts or promotions relating to gambling on social media, and 13% reported following a gambling account on social media.

Licensees are required to provide the Commission on request with such information as the Commission may require about the use made of facilities provided in accordance with the licence, including … the licensee’s policies in relation to, and experiences of, problem gambling. In particular, licensees should have regard to their role in preventing crime (including money laundering offences and cheating at gambling) and consider to what extent this objective would be likely to be prejudiced by a request to erase data or restrict processing of personal data, for example. The Bill also includes a condition which allows processing of special category data where an individual is at risk and the processing is necessary for the purposes of protecting the mental or emotional well-being of an individual. Where processing of special category data or criminal offence data is required for the purposes of compliance with their licence obligations, licensees will wish to identify a legal basis which allows such processing. Licensees should note that more than one of the above bases may apply to some of the personal data they obtain (for instance, data obtained to ensure operators know their customers).

Stake Limits, Autoplay Ban, and Affordability Checks

In planning terms, individual gambling premises in England are sui generis (a class of their own) which means that new types of premises cannot be opened without planning permission. In England, the planning system also offers another layer of control to the opening of gambling premises. The Commission and licensing authorities are given broad powers to set conditions that require licensed gambling to be carried out in a way that is consistent with the licensing objectives of keeping it fair and open and free from crime, and protecting children and vulnerable people. Although submissions to the call for evidence suggested that policy statements have limited significance when weighed against the ‘aim to permit’, many licensing authorities have taken significant steps to update their policy statements and apply them when making their decisions. These objectives can inform decisions and actions, such as attaching conditions to premises licences and requiring applicants to provide certain information as part of their application, such as proximity to sensitive locations or vulnerable communities.

Our initial headline impact estimate (see table below) for key proposals which we are able to quantify, is a potential drop of between 3% and 8% in commercial Gross Gambling Yield (with a drop in online GGY of 8% to 14% partially offset by a land-based increase of 2% to 5%). The proposals are targeted with the intent of minimising this unintended consequence, and the resultant costs to industry, to be proportionate to the objective of reducing harm. Because harmful gambling tends to involve elevated spend, our package of measures to prevent harm is likely to reduce the revenue of gambling companies.

Getting a licence

The UKGC has introduced age-based online slot stake limits. Any operator offering gambling services to UK residents must hold a valid UKGC licence. The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) is the independent regulatory body responsible for licensing and overseeing all commercial gambling in Great Britain. It is also worth noting that it is not illegal for UK residents to gamble at offshore casinos. We strongly recommend playing only at UKGC-licensed casinos. Report issues through the UKGC website at

Casino licence holders making changes to their gaming machine provision are expected to reflect these changes in their MLTF risk assessment and consider whether their policies, procedures and controls need updating. The legislative changes also introduced changes to gaming machine entitlements for converted casino premises. The Commission expects casino licence holders who introduce betting activity to update their MLTF risk assessments, considering all relevant risks and taking into account the betting sector risks published in the Commission’s risk assessment. Licence holders should consider whether, as a result of the changes and gambling facilities offered, an operating licence (OL) variation is required with regard to fee category and/or the licensed activities being offered (such as betting). Arianne has a wealth of experience in the gambling sector with a focus on online gaming and betting and she regularly advises clients domestically and internationally.

Processing of personal data will continue to be required in order to achieve compliance with a gambling licence. Where licensees have genuine well-founded concerns about GDPR, we are committed to working with industry to get the right outcome – one that safeguards personal data whilst also promoting the licensing objectives. GDPR should not be improperly used as an excuse to avoid taking steps which enable compliance with licence conditions, promote socially responsible gambling, and promote the licensing objectives. We take the view that GDPR is not intended to prevent operators from taking steps which are necessary in the public interest, or are necessary to comply with regulatory requirements under a gambling licence.

A financial risk model must help protect those vulnerable cohorts for whom even relatively modest gambling losses could be in itself harmful, for example by limiting income available for necessities. The Gambling Commission published a consultation and call for evidence on issues around customer interaction, including preventing harmful or unaffordable losses, in December 2020. The obligations on remote operators to monitor account activity and intervene where individuals display signs of potential harm are a cornerstone of the current package of protections online. While there are real complexities that make it difficult to pinpoint a precise figure, the weight of the evidence suggests that those being harmed by gambling are overrepresented among those with high gambling spend. In responses to our call for evidence, estimates of the Gross Gambling Yield derived from harmful gambling varied significantly, as they have in previous evidence such as that reviewed by the knowledge exchange GREO in 2019, which found estimates range between 15% and 50%. Some submissions pointed out that a reliance on a high spending minority is not unusual in other sectors (such as air travel) and that higher than average spending on gambling is not in itself evidence of harm as discretionary income varies significantly across individuals.

Ipsos MORI’s research on the impact of gambling marketing on children (aged 11 to 17) and young adults (aged 18 to 24) found that sport was one of the major channels through which children are likely to be exposed to such marketing. Children’s exposure to gambling marketing through sport sponsorship is identified as a particular area of concern in other research. Seeing sponsorships (15%) was less influential than having or hearing about a big win (28% and 27% respectively), or seeing advertising or direct marketing (both 19%) and similar to hearing about other people’s negative experiences with gambling (14%). The Gambling Commission’s consumer journey research calculated percentage impact scores (prevalence x encouragement) for different factors that affect gambling. Inclusion in the IGRG Code will help ensure all operators abide by the commitment as it has ordinary code status and compliance can be considered in regulatory action by the Gambling Commission.

The Gambling (Premises Licence Fees) (England and Wales) Regulations 2007 established the maximum level of fees that Local Authorities in England and Wales can charge for gambling premises licences. The licensing authority’s policy statement is a key tool for authorities to set out their priorities and objectives relating to gambling, with a strong consideration of local issues and risks. It is also a requirement in the Gambling Commission’s social responsibility code of practice that operators conduct local risk assessments for each existing or new premises.

The Gambling Commission issues a code of practice on the provision of gaming machines in alcohol-licensed premises. There is no upper limit placed on the number of gaming machines allowed, but if a venue wants to install more than two machines, they must apply to the licensing authority to do so (as set out in section 283 of, and Schedule 13 to, the Gambling Act 2005) and pay the prescribed fee. In England and Wales, alcohol licensed premises currently have an automatic entitlement to up to two Category C or D gaming machines. Following a consultation on proposals for changes to Gaming Machines and Social Responsibility Measures, the maximum stake on B2 machines (Fixed Odds Betting Terminals) was reduced from £100 to £2 in April 2019, to reduce the risk of gambling-related harm. These include a variety of venues in practice, including ‘high-end’ casinos which cater for high-net worth (mainly international) clients and have a business model based primarily on live gaming tables. The 2005 Act casinos are also subject to minimum overall and non-gaming space requirements which were introduced alongside a ratio of machines to tables aimed at ensuring a balanced offer of different products.