UK Gambling Laws in August 2026: UKGC Rules, Taxes and Player Protection
Further information about premises licence fees are outlined in Chapter 5. Therefore, we are consulting on how best to allow casinos to move onto the new regime. If your casino already offers sports betting, what is the GGY from this activity? If this proportion was representative across all casinos, then total casino sector GGY could increase by approximately £1.3 million. The policy could also encourage casinos to invest in broadcasting sport, both in broadcast rights and venue enhancement, which will have additional costs. In practice, venues which include sportsbooks as part of their product offering do not utilise a maximum of 40 — the largest casino by gambling area currently sites 12 terminals.
This includes both online and physical places you can gamble, like a betting shop or casino. Next up, online casinos can no longer allow people to play multiple games simultaneously. Some of the biggest changes to the way games are played at online casinos will involve the way the games are designed. If you live in the UK, when casinos not on gamestop January rolls around, expect online casinos to ask you to opt-in to marketing from them. From this point onwards, any direct marketing needs to be opt-in, so players must choose to receive advertising from online casinos.
Advertising & marketing rules
- This change will enable the continued viability of the high-end sector of casinos, and allow these casinos, and others that transact with these overseas based customers via cheques, to continue to contribute to the tax and tourist economy.
- The UK casino regulations represent the most significant overhaul of British gambling law in over two decades.
- Industry stakeholders (as well as representatives of sectors which benefit from operators’ ability to advertise, such as advertisers, broadcasters and sports governing bodies) broadly took the view that the current regulatory regime is fit for purpose.
- These operators tend not to offer personalised account management or tailored incentives for specific customers.
- The government will challenge the remaining operators who allow 16 and 17-year-olds to buy their products to stop this practice so that there is no online or widely and easily accessible scratchcard gambling for under 18s.
- Therefore, a general shift in the economic model of remote gambling away from a reliance on a high spending minority is likely desirable to achieve the government’s objectives and create a more sustainable industry.
The Gambling Commission has clear rules for operators relating to marketing activities, including the promotion of sponsorship arrangements, which it will continue to enforce. Operators to cover costs of education for sportspeople and staff on gambling-related harm from an independent provider. In particular, we envisage that separate measures will apply to horse racing and greyhound racing due to the specific and long-established nature of the sectors’ relationships with gambling operators. As shown in Figure 12 below, gambling sponsors contribute around £45 million per year across the EFL’s three leagues (including Sky Bet’s title sponsorship).
At the same time, it is also important that the ways licensing authorities approach local considerations across the country are consistent and follow the same framework principles. Although there is a workaround available to licensing authorities, and the Gambling Commission has published an advice note setting this out, the Commission also recommends that the legislation is amended to provide further clarity. The Gambling Commission also recommended that some clarifications and technical amendments are made to the Gambling Act 2005 to confirm that certain powers apply to licensing authorities and/or licensing officers in Scotland as they do in England and Wales.
According to evidence from the Betting and Gaming Council, casinos received more than 17 million customer visits in 2019, including a large number of visits from tourists and overseas customers. Around 45 current 1968 Act casinos meet the minimum overall size and non-gambling space requirements for a 2005 Act Small casino and would therefore be able to offer a maximum of 80 machines. Casinos originally licensed under 1968 Act provisions are limited to 20 Category B gaming machines regardless of size, and a Small 2005 Act casino would need 40 tables to be allowed 80 gaming machines whereas a large would only need 16. Its final recommendation in this area is that any move towards the use of debit cards on gaming machines should strike an appropriate balance between regulation applicable to modern payment methods, consumer benefits and protection of the licensing objectives. The first recommendation focuses on the importance of account-based play in protecting customers in land-based settings, asking the government to encourage operators to use such technology to identify and protect customers at risk of harm, subject to a proportionate approach.
As set out above, on 8 December 2020, the UK Government announced a long-awaited review of British gambling laws. Does your jurisdiction permit virtual currencies to be used for gambling and are they separately regulated? In terms of the regulatory obligations imposed upon licensees by British licences, these are described above. Licences are available to persons based outside the United Kingdom. In February 2024, the (then) Government announced that, following consultation, maximum stake limits for online slots will be introduced and set at £5 per spin (or, for those aged 24 and under, £2 per spin).
Figure 4: Current machine to table ratio for different types of casinos
Approximately 90% of UK current accounts from retail banks now offer opt-in gambling blocks which prevent card payments to gambling companies once activated. In March 2020, it became mandatory for licensed operators to sign up to GAMSTOP, the multi-operator self-exclusion scheme. For example, the option to set a deposit limit must be available to all customers from when they first open an account or deposit funds, and increasing a deposit limit must take at least 24 hours to come into effect.
Casino premises
These account for an estimated 70% of online casino games. The Gambling Commission said online operators would need to implement the new rules by 31 October. New restrictions designed to make online casino games less intensive and safer have been announced by the Gambling Commission.
By contrast, under Option 2, the same operator reported that it would be required to increase the number of Category C machines, resulting in increased costs. Industry respondents asserted that these machines are underused but energy intensive. Another large arcade operator estimated that a B3 cabinet gaming machine generates c.£600 per week, per machine. Responses from both the arcade and bingo sector show that Category B machines generate higher GGY on average than Category C and D machines, though responses indicated that the levels of GGY were higher in the arcade sector.
Find out more about how we regulate the gambling industry in Great Britain. In particular, we are grateful to the House of Lords ad-hoc Select Committee on the social and economic impact of gambling, and we have considered all of the evidence submitted directly to that committee and its recommendations in our deliberations. In the period between the opening of the call of evidence on the 8th December 2020 and publication, the ministers responsible for the Gambling Act Review had over 100 meetings with stakeholders on gambling issues. While all industry submissions recognised the need to update the regulatory framework and presented useful evidence to consider, some outlined far more developed proposals for reforms than others. The gambling industry made 57 submissions, coming from both trade bodies (for instance Betting and Gaming Council, Bacta, The Bingo Association, and the Lotteries Council), as well as individual companies. We are particularly grateful to those who shared the evidence of their own experience of harm to inform the Review’s deliberations as they provide an important personal perspective.
The regulator also makes use of the system of personal management licences to act against individuals and there have been licence suspensions in cases where the regulator considered the operator to be substantially non-compliant. The usual pattern of regulatory enforcement is for the regulator to instigate a review of the operating licence in question, with the consequences described above. The British regulator continues its series of enforcement actions against its licensees, as described above, including follow-ups from previous enforcement actions. Have fines, licence revocations or other sanctions been enforced in your jurisdiction? Anyone who is involved to any material extent in the provision of gambling, or gambling software, may be committing an offence in the UK if they are not correctly licensed or if they cannot take advantage of one of the limited range of exemptions in the legislation.
Our intention is that these checks will also be frictionless for customers and conducted online by credit reference agencies or through other means such as open banking in the first instance. These enhanced checks are narrowly targeted and we estimate only around 3% of online gambling accounts will be affected. We also propose that the triggers for enhanced checks should be halved for those aged 18 to 24 given evidence on increased risk. Second, at higher levels of spend which may indicate harmful binge gambling or sustained unaffordable losses (we propose thresholds of £1,000 net loss within 24 hours or £2,000 within 90 days), there should be a more detailed consideration of a customer’s financial position. However, around 300,000 people in Great Britain are estimated to be experiencing ‘problem gambling’, defined as gambling to a degree which compromises, disrupts, or damages family, personal or recreational pursuits, and a further 1.8 million are identified as gambling at elevated levels of risk.
The vast majority (around 80%) of respondents with a Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI) score of 0 reported that seeing gambling advertising never prompted them to spend money gambling when they were not otherwise planning to. Equally, higher-risk gamblers are more likely to report spending money as a result of seeing any form of advertising. These reforms will also benefit everyone who chooses to gamble, by giving every customer increased clarity and control over the communications that they receive, and ensuring that bonuses from operators are offered in a socially responsible fashion. The objective to protect vulnerable people from harm is at the heart of this Review and these proposals.
The regulations are part of a package that amends restrictions applying to some gaming products, giving casinos greater freedom about what they can offer customers. Utilising our up-to-date database, casinos can effectively screen their customers, performing thorough due diligence checks to detect any potential dangers or questionable activity. Next Steps When all the statutory instruments have been laid in the UK Parliament, the Commission will publish information on the overall intent of the statutory instruments, what the changes mean for operators of casino premises that intend to make use of the amended Regulations and how this process should be administered by licensing authorities when applications are received. As part of the increase in premises fees, industry responses highlighted that they would like to see licensing authorities invest in further staff training to increase knowledge and understanding of gambling legislation, which in their view, would improve engagement.
Once published, CIAs place some of the ongoing analytical burden on the applicant, as the operator has the option to demonstrate that its proposals will not increase harm in a particular area. We accept there is merit in bringing the regime for gambling in line with alcohol and will legislate to introduce CIAs when Parliamentary time allows. We also recognise that licensing authorities, as well as the LGA and the Gambling Commission, have requested that CIAs are introduced.
We therefore propose to consult on reducing the ratio from 80/20 (Category B to C/D machines) to 50/50 (Category B to C/D machines) in bingo and arcade venues. However, we remain of the view that it is important to maintain a balanced offering of higher and lower stake products in licensed gambling premises. It has also been overtaken by the development of digital Category B machines with improved player protections in comparison to older Category C and D machines, although we recognise there is scope to make further improvements. The stake for Category C machines is currently at a maximum of £1 and was last changed in 2009 — if inflation had been applied this would (as of February 2023) be approximately £1.43.
Following evaluation later this year, the intention is to expand the system to consider customers who are showing other indicators of harm with one operator which might necessitate coordinated action with other operators. The live trial which started this month is based on operators sharing information on individuals who have had their accounts closed because of disclosures about suffering serious harm. An industry-led trial with GAMSTOP as the delivery partner is now proceeding, having been supported by the ICO’s sandbox process, and focusing on high risk customers. We are pleased progress has been made on these after the Information Commissioner’s Office confirmed that, subject to certain controls, operators can share customer data for harm prevention purposes in compliance with existing data protection requirements. Their concern is that not only are those being harmed by gambling unlikely to be helped by such a measure, but also that many of those who were not being harmed would nonetheless be driven away from licensed operators. The precise impact of these changes will depend on the details which the Gambling Commission will consult on shortly, including how operators are required to conduct the checks and how they respond to certain findings on customers’ financial circumstances.
Some players object to sharing financial information with gambling operators. Operating without a valid UKGC licence while serving UK customers is a criminal offence, and players at unlicensed sites have no regulatory protections. If a casino does not appear on the UKGC register or its licence has been revoked, do not play there.
In February 2021, the Gambling Commission announced revised standards for online slot games to make them safer by design. In addition, the regulator also sets the Remote Technical Standards which outline the security and technical standards for remote gambling operations. While operators’ approaches to achieving this vary, the strengthened Gambling Commission rules which came into force in September 2022 and February 2023 clarify operator responsibilities around customer interaction and mandate consistency across the sector. Where needed, the actions taken must include encouraging or requiring a player to set limits, actively signposting to support services, suspending marketing in cases where there are strong indicators of harm, and unilaterally suspending or closing accounts. Services such as Gamban and BetBlocker also allow consumers to block access to gambling apps and websites on internet devices.
However, we are aware of the possibility that some operators may attempt to maximise their number of Category B cabinets above and beyond that intended by the 50/50 proposal by siting tablets which are not genuinely accessible or in-fill machines in their venues. We anticipate that our proposal to allow operators to increase their number of Category B machines to 50 percent will enable operators to better meet customer demand, and in turn minimise the likelihood of ‘available for use’ guidance being subverted. The Gambling Commission has expressed concern that operators currently seek to maximise Category B machine numbers by providing Category C and D games on inaccessible small tablets or via in-fill machines. To ensure a proportionate and evidence-based balance is satisfied, we are seeking views from a range of interested stakeholders to inform the strengths and risks of each option. While the intensiveness of energy expenditure will vary by machine device type and energy efficiency, the costs to industry of maintaining these machines can be significant. Gaming machines account for a significant proportion of energy costs, a substantial number of which are sited by operators purely to meet the 80/20 rule.
The information that an ombudsman collates can assist the industry in supporting vulnerable consumers whilst also providing feedback to inform processes aimed at reducing detriment. While we do not expect this overall volume of complaints in gambling, especially as complaints to the FOS around businesses’ customer services accounted for over 35,000 cases alone, a significant increase is likely. We understand, however, that the current number of complaints is not necessarily representative of the quantum of complaints, including those regarding social responsibility, that could be received if a single new body or function was created to handle them and consumers had confidence in it. Separate data on the scale of the issues comes from the Gambling Commission’s contact centre, which received 1,305 ‘Safer Gambling tools / customer interaction’ complaints in 2020 to 2021 (15% of total complaints) and 800 in 2021 to 2022 (14% of total complaints). The Independent Betting Adjudication Service (IBAS) is the largest ADR provider in the gambling sector, handling around 80% of ADR disputes. Of the 5% of complaints made directly to operators that go to ADR, it appears that c.6% related to social responsibility failings and therefore fell outside the scope of the existing arrangement.