Amendment to the Gambling Act 2005

High stakes: gambling reform for the digital age

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 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.

Other evidence suggests adolescents have a greater risk tolerance compared to older adults and this may be reflected in their attitudes towards gambling specifically. PHE’s evidence review highlights a higher problem gambling and at risk rate among younger age groups than older age groups. Making the Gambling Commission’s code of practice for alcohol licensed premises binding would provide licensing authorities with greater powers on underage gambling in premises, but we do not expect it to create an additional burden for them. In their submissions to the review, representatives of the pub sector outlined a number of steps they are taking to address this, including regular staff training and building age verification into the machines themselves to reduce the reliance on staff supervision. However, due to the exemption, the Gambling Commission currently has an incomplete picture of the risks from underage gambling in premises run by smaller licensees. There have been calls from both industry and  campaign groups to introduce ‘Think 25’ as standard for all land-based gambling, a position shared by the Advisory Board for Safer Gambling (ABSG) in its 2018 report which pointed to findings from the retail alcohol industry.

Offences cover the unlicensed offer of gambling, the unlicensed use of premises for gambling, the promotion or facilitation of a lottery and so on. However, the way that British legislation addresses gambling is to set up a whole series of criminal offences and then provide that the possession of the appropriate licence is a defence. Multi-operator self-exclusion schemes are in place to allow consumers to self-exclude from multiple gambling premises in Great Britain. The outcome of that consultation is not yet known.An “economic crime levy” is payable by entities that are regulated for anti-money laundering purposes (currently only casinos in the UK) and which generate more than £10.2 million in UK revenue.

Cryptocurrencies facilitate faster transactions, appealing to tech-savvy customers and ensuring smoother payment processes. Blockchain technology and cryptocurrency add layers of transparency and security to the industry. Players seek convenient access, leading to the proliferation of apps and platforms offering seamless gaming experiences. Introducing stricter regulations, including meticulous age and identity verification, complicates compliance. Staying informed about these changes is crucial for adapting to the industry’s future dynamics. The evolving landscape of casino regulation in the UK presents significant changes and challenges for entrepreneurs and businesses in the sector.

The lack of direct cashless payment methods on gaming machines contrasts with the cashless options that consumers have within the wider retail economy. Gaming machines are currently permitted in a variety of locations and divided into various categories based on factors such as maximum stake and prize available, as well as the premises where they may be used. As they are an extension of card payment, the direct use of contactless mobile systems such as Google Pay or Apple Pay on gaming machines is also prohibited. The Gaming Machine (Circumstances of Use) Regulations 2007 prohibit the use of debit cards for direct payments to gaming machines, and prohibit any use of credit cards. What impact would Options 1, 2 and 3 have on the overall number of Category B, C and D gaming machines?

Amendment to the Gambling Act 2005

We believe these to be of a smaller magnitude than the effects considered above, and expect forthcoming policy-specific consultations will broaden the evidence base to support detailed impact assessment. We recognise that our proposals also involve additional friction and/or reduced incentivisation for some people who are spending at high levels which they can afford and who are not being harmed. As part of the consultation, we will strongly encourage licensing authorities to consider the range of resources required for comprehensive monitoring and enforcement, such as IT and analytical capability, which may not have been a necessary or proportionate requirement when the fees were originally set.

How the Casino Regulations 2026 Affect Your Play

Cutting-edge technologies are transforming the UK gambling industry, making it crucial for entrepreneurs to stay abreast of developments. Exploring the future of casino regulation in the UK isn’t just about compliance; it’s about anticipating shifts that could redefine the industry. The UK government has been actively reassessing its approach to casino regulation, aiming to strike a balance between consumer protection and industry growth. Given the overall success of online gambling in the United Kingdom, it’s no surprise that nations all over the planet look in our direction for guidance. The UKGC is also developing new rules to govern betting on widely popular e-sports and other forms of social gaming. Given the number of legitimate sites, there isn’t really an incentive to visit rogue or otherwise unregulated casinos.

The liberalisation of gambling advertising was one of the major changes introduced by the Gambling Act 2005. The Premier League has announced that it will remove gambling sponsors from the fronts of players’ shirts, aimed at reducing children’s exposure to gambling brands in a way which might appeal to them, in line with new advertising rules. We expect all sports to take a responsible approach to gambling sponsorship and support the sector’s efforts to implement minimum standards for social responsibility through a cross-sport Code of Conduct. Replacing industry ownership, this will consider information at the point of purchase and messages within advertising, and identify what messaging works for different contexts and audiences. Numbers of customers on these schemes have already significantly declined following strengthened Commission protections in October 2020. The consultation also will consider measures such as a cap on re-wagering requirements and an appropriate minimum time frame for customers to claim bonuses.

Under this option, for every device with higher maximum staking there would be a lower maximum staking machine of equivalent size and nature available to customers. The same rule would apply to all other gaming machine device types. This is in addition to a 9 percent increase in the overall number of B3 machines, representing approximately 900 machines across the total AGC estate. Projections on the impact of this proposal for the AGC sector suggest there will be a 10 percent reduction in the number of Category C machines and a 20 percent reduction in the number of Category D games, in-fills, and tablets.

COVID-19 had a significant impact on all land-based gambling sectors with venues required to close and then operate under restrictions for large parts of 2020 and 2021. In September 2019, the GGY generated by remote gambling overtook that of land-based gambling for the first time (excluding lotteries). We support allowing specific proposals for new machine games to be tested within planned industry pilots under certain conditions with the close involvement of the Gambling Commission, and will legislate when Parliamentary time allows.

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.

Introducing an age-limit on certain types of Category D gaming machines – draft affirmative statutory instrument. Allowing direct use of debit cards on gaming machines – made negative statutory instrument. By contrast, licensing authorities and respondents from the third sector tended to highlight the risk of increased gambling-related harm as a result of increasing commercial flexibility for businesses. What impact would Options 1, 2 and 3 have on the overall number of Category B, C and D gaming machines Please rank these options in order of preference, with 1 being your preferred option. Q4.a Do you perceive there to be any issue with allowing multiple casino licences in the same physical location if gaming machine entitlements are increased as proposed?

In most cases, this definition applies to slots, otherwise known as fruit or jackpot machines. The following local licensing authorities are permitted to have large brick-and-mortar casino locations. The UKGC’s purpose is to regulate all commercial gambling enterprises in the UK in conjunction with the proper licensing authorities. It is considered unlawful for any gambling operator to advertise if they are not in possession of a proper licence. Gambling (Licensing and Advertising) Act 2014 – The Gambling (Licensing and Advertising) Act 2014 was passed to curtail licensing loopholes being taken advantage of by offshore operators. The United Kingdom is an inclusive country when it comes to both brick-and-mortar and online gambling.

This Act applies to both remote and non-remote gambling conditions and has received approval from HM Treasury. It serves as the regulatory agency for all gambling operations in the UK. The Gambling Commission is responsible for administering and enforcing the Gambling Act 2005, which is the primary legislation regulating most forms of gambling in the country. The Gambling Commission’s guidance for licensing authorities.

There is a large market in the United Kingdom for gambling on competitive sports at bookmakers (betting shops) or licensed websites, particularly for horse, greyhound racing and football. Gaming machines are divided into a number of categories, mainly depending upon the stakes and payouts involved, and whether there is an element of skill (these are known officially as AWPs or “Amusement with Prizes” machines). Many towns and cities bid to host one of these so-called “super casinos”, which will be similar to those found in Las Vegas.

In the current predominantly cash-based landscape, ATMs must be positioned to require a player to take a break in play in order to access additional funds. If No is selected What do you think the maximum committed payment limit should be for the following machine categories (£)? Shown if No is selected What do you think the maximum deposit limit should be for the following machine categories (£)? In order to bring direct cashless payment methods in line with the cash-based landscape, their maximum transaction value must be considered alongside the existing Gaming Machine (Circumstances of Use) Regulations 2007.

As part of this, we will work with UKRI to explore the development of rapid-response funding to support research into fast-paced developments in the gambling field as well as longer term funding options for longitudinal research and opportunities to grow the academic community in the UK. We will organise a series of workshops later this year, hosted with UKRI, to stimulate interest in gambling research among researchers across a range of academic disciplines. We will consult on the details of how the levy will be designed including proposals on the total amount to be raised by the levy and how it will be constructed and will. Government will introduce a statutory levy paid by operators and collected and distributed by the Gambling Commission. However, we believe there is further scope to increase the demonstrable independence of spending, government oversight regarding commissioning decisions and the available investment in high quality research to inform policy and regulation. As mentioned above, the largest four operators have directed their contributions to the charity GambleAware which has supported the provision of important research, prevention and awareness-raising projects, and crucial treatment services.

In addition, we recognise that young adults may be particularly susceptible to gambling harm — see section 5.4. We will therefore introduce a stake limit for online slots games which will be fixed for all customers. However, this would rely on robust and reliable ways of identifying those who are and are not at risk of harm from accessing higher stakes. Additionally, a large number of people being flagged as exhibiting risk is not necessarily a bad thing, as it may demonstrate the operators’ proactivity in identifying and investigating signs of risk and potentially intervening. Since the call non gamstop sites for evidence closed, we have also been told that 35% of customers stake more than £2 at least once a year.

• Further, it is our view that much of the foregone revenue is likely to be that which was coming from financially vulnerable customers or those who were gambling at significantly unaffordable levels, although this is hard to quantify.
• As set out in the white paper, we believe that a more precautionary approach is justified for slot-style games which mirror the mechanics of adult-only gaming machines, particularly those which pay out cash.
• The primary benefit of this measure is increased GGY for casinos that take up additional gaming machines.
• 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 action.

The site holds a current UKGC licence, runs GAMSTOP integration, and the responsible-gambling controls are genuinely in front of you (not buried in a settings sub-menu). It’s one of the few UKGC operators that genuinely integrates a serious sportsbook with a proper casino — most operators do one well and the other as an afterthought. UKGC licence is current, the site runs full affordability monitoring, and the responsible-gambling toolkit includes the usual deposit limits, time-outs and GAMSTOP linking. E-wallet withdrawals consistently landed in under two hours in our testing window — well ahead of industry average for UKGC operators. Below are our full hands-on reviews for each of the 15 casinos above. It’s not the end of regulated online gambling activity in the UK, but it is the end of pretending the digital era can be regulated like it’s still 2005.

However, as not all licensing authorities charge the maximum fee, this suggests that appropriate flexibility is possible within a cap. One submission stated a preference for a removal of nationally set fees, to a flexible system where local authorities can set fees in accordance with their costs (as happens with alcohol and taxi licensing). Some responses also suggested that more guidance, in particular relating to attaching licence conditions, would be helpful. There was some emphasis on cashless gambling and acknowledgement of arguments both against and in favour of allowing greater use of debit card payments. A key point was that only 8 of the 16 licences made available in 2005 have since been developed (with one having subsequently closed), which is in part attributed to licences not being allocated on the basis of customer demand. These submissions called for more powers to be delegated to ministers or the Gambling Commission so that machine games can more quickly adapt to future changes.

Venues would be required to comply with these requirements in order to increase their gaming machine allowance. Contrastingly, respondents from local government, campaign groups and academia were more cautious about any measures which could be seen as increasing the supply of gambling opportunities, due to links between rates of gambling participation and gambling-related harm. This fee enables licensing authorities to fund their enforcement and administrative gambling duties on a cost recovery basis. We will increase the maximum premises licence fees which can be charged by local authorities by 15%. To ensure that this is enforced we will make it a criminal offence to invite, cause or permit someone under the age of 18 to use these machines.

However, all non-slot casino games are now subject to a mandatory 5-second minimum game cycle to prevent high-intensity, rapid-fire wagering. The statutory per-spin stake limits currently apply only to online slots. The £150 net deposit threshold (within a 30-day period) is the industry standard for “light-touch” checks. Most licensed sites will update your account limit automatically based on your verified date of birth.

We do not believe that a 10% increase is sufficient to future-proof licensing authority funding in line with the recovery of the land-based sector from the challenges of COVID-19 and rising energy prices in recent years. Increased fees will enable licensing authorities to undertake more enforcement and engagement activities with licensed premises. We believe that on balance an increase to the maximum cap on premises licence fees by 15% is proportionate. A low number of premises visits may also be indicative of the lack of funding received by licensing authorities to fully undertake duties, such as inspections, alongside other administrative and enforcement functions. However, premises visits are only one aspect of a licensing authorities regulatory work. A number of these responses acknowledged the financial pressures placed on licensing authorities, which was reflected by the substantial number of industry responses that advocated for a 10% increase.

Likewise, 9% of ‘non-problem gamblers’ restarted gambling after taking a break after receiving an offer, compared to 53% of those with ‘problem gambler’ classification. Gamblers have reported engaging in higher-risk behaviours, such as playing multiple games simultaneously or using ‘auto-play’ functionality in order to play through bonus wagering requirements as quickly as possible. However, such incentives are not exclusively for existing customers, and ‘sign-up bonuses’ which reward new customers with a one-off benefit have become a key element of market competition. Often this involves giving certain individuals or cohorts a wide range of offers to encourage play and reward loyalty, including free bets or spins, cashback, and best odds guarantees.