Gambling Commission Wikipedia
In particular, such requests are unlikely to be valid if retention of the data is still necessary in relation to a lawful purpose. Licensees should already have assessed how long to retain data for, bearing in mind the legitimate purposes for which it was gathered and has been retained. GDPR does not substantially alter the principles behind the development of policies for data retention.
In England, there are currently eight NHS specialist gambling clinics in operation, including a national children and young persons’ clinic (part of the National Problem Gambling Clinic in London), covering London and the North East, North West, Yorkshire, South of England and West Midlands. While treatment of gambling-related harms is not currently mainstreamed across the NHS, limited numbers of people may seek support through existing services such as Mental Health Services and Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT). Others pointed to difficulty accessing operator data without being dependent on the goodwill of the industry. They said gambling research has attracted a narrow pool of researchers, in part because of reluctance to accept voluntary funding originating from industry donations and the consequent low status of gambling as a research area. Unlike for alcohol, substantial funding for gambling-specific research, as well as education and treatment, is available through the system of voluntary donations from industry outlined above.
Gambling Commission Licence Conditions and Codes of Practice already contain requirements in both the land-based and online sectors that information about the odds of winning is disclosed to players of certain games at the point of purchase. We recognise that expanding adtech targeting commitments to paid-for space may make it harder to reach some potential customers but paid-for online advertising will still be permitted alongside many other routes to attracting customers, such as broadcast or appropriately targeted social media advertising. For those who are struggling with harmful gambling, we want to make it as straightforward as possible to opt out of gambling content and advertising, and to close the gaps that mean that individuals who have self-excluded can still be targeted by gambling ads. Children’s advertising exposure and their ability to engage with operators’ content should decrease at the same time as the most recent reforms to the CAP code reduce the potential appeal of gambling content to children. We believe these proposals will result in an online advertising environment that is safer for children and vulnerable people, while still allowing operators to continue to engage with key audiences.
Figure 5: Current and proposed machine to table ratio for different types of casinos
After paying a licensing fee, the site is free to offer services and games to UK residents. At the core of this legal shift was the desire to regulate remote operators more closely and ensure players were afforded the best protection possible. At the close of 2014 the region introduced a number of regulatory innovations that have since strengthened the country’s iGaming credentials and reconfirmed its status as an industry leader. We help British players find safe, fair, and enjoyable casino sites.
According to the Patterns of Play data, total online gambling spend is 43% higher from the most deprived decile than the least deprived decile, and it’s 73% higher specifically on gaming products (which are generally higher risk). The 10 smallest casinos (those under 300m2 gambling area) use nearly their entire Category B Machine entitlement (averaging 16.9 machines out of 20 maximum). Relatedly, there will likely be some interactions between financial checks and the proposed system for sharing data on high risk customers (section 1.2) since financial checks will feed into operators’ wider assessment of a customer’s risk of harm.
Firstly, much of the available data on children being able to access age restricted forms of gambling comes from their own self-reporting which may be unreliable. However, evidence suggests that some children are still able to participate in gambling which they should be barred from. It should create a clear distinction between gambling products for adults and lower risk products for children which have non-cash prizes or (like a penny pusher) are entirely unlike an adult gambling product. Although we will consult further on the details of our proposal above, slot machines in FECs which are legally adult-only (Category C machines) are required to be in a segregated part of the venue to prevent children accessing those machines. Category D machines which do not pay out cash will not be subject to the increase in the minimum age to play. We welcome Bacta’s voluntary commitment, but to ensure all operators comply with it, we propose to move that requirement into legislation, making the legal minimum age to play cash-out Category D slot machine style games 18 years old.
The casino bonus is reasonable rather than headline-grabbing (100% up to £300 plus 100 free spins, 10x wagering). If you also follow conventional sports and play casino, it’s a sensible three-in-one. The welcome offer is straightforward — 100% match up to £500, no free spins fluff — and the 10x wagering applies cleanly across casino games. The 200% welcome match is the biggest multiplier on our list — if you deposit the £200 minimum to hit the cap, you walk away with £600 of casino balance and 100 spins to play through. If you’d rather one account for Saturday football and Tuesday-night slots than juggle separate operators, this is the easiest win on our list.
Game Design Changes
We propose to introduce a stake limit for online slots, consulting on a limit of between £2 and £15 per spin, to structurally limit the risks of harmful play. The Gambling Commission intends to consult on mandating participation in a cross-operator harm prevention system based on data sharing, following assessment of the currently live operator trials which have had input from the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) and the Commission. Individual operators can take steps to prevent harm on their own platform but people suffering gambling harms usually hold multiple accounts or can open new ones easily. Further information will only be requested from customers as a last resort where it is necessary to complete an assessment, and the use of any data gathered through such checks will be restricted to assessing financial risk and indicators of financial distress.
The Gambling Act 2005 defines a casino as an arrangement whereby people are given an opportunity to participate in one or more casino games. The white paper set out the government’s plans for modernising the regulation of the gambling sector.
This has been considered alongside other evidence available to us and advice from the Gambling Commission. The maximum annual fee for an adult gaming centre is £1,000 in England and Wales, and £700 in Scotland. The fees that licensing authorities collect for applications and annual renewals are used to cover the cost of administration and enforcement. The purpose of the document is for licensing authorities to develop and publish their vision for the local area and a statement of intent to guide decision-making.
In particular, licensing authorities were concerned that the ‘aim to permit’ results in the granting of premises licences even when specific harms or risks have been identified. A report submitted to our call for evidence found that the 2005 Act casinos had generated some benefits to the local economy including regeneration, jobs and money paid to local authorities as part of the arrangement for the licence being awarded. Typically gaming machines are cabinets housing computer terminals, with either buttons or touch screens allowing customers to select different machine game types (e.g. B2 or B3 games).
If you are a local authority/ licensing board, how many premises licence applications did you receive in the 22/23 financial year? We expect that wider benefits will arise from the increase in oversight and enforcement activity by licensing authorities of gambling premises in their area and are seeking further information to better understand these benefits. The primary cost of this measure is the additional costs incurred by gambling operators resulting from the increased licensing fees. Note that the different fees currently charged for large and small casinos may be subject to review and harmonisation following the consultation outlined in Chapter 1. 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. This activity may include inspecting gambling premises to ensure that they are complying with their licence or dealing with complaints from residents or neighbours.
From 29th July 2026, a new Gambling Commission licence condition concerning non-compliant gaming machines comes into force. These changes force operators, casinos and machine designers to prioritise safer gambling over profit to ensure players are protected with accountability in mind. Licensed operators can provide remote gambling facilities across major verticals (casino, betting, bingo, lotteries) provided they hold the correct operating licences and comply with the LCCP and technical standards. For casinos, arcades, and betting shops, this rule introduces clear legal authority for the regulator to demand the removal of problematic machines. For gambling businesses like land based and online casinos, the updates introduce new compliance requirements and operational changes.
Therefore, venues such as pubs and members’ clubs will not be impacted by any increases to premises licence fees. The fees payable for gaming machine notifications and gaming machine permits are not in scope of this review. Licensing authorities have an important regulatory role alongside the Gambling Commission in licensing local premises. Should it be a criminal offence for a person to invite, cause or permit children or young persons to play on these machines?
Alongside the harm to the individual, gambling-related harms can have negative impacts on other people and wider communities. Due to a lack of longitudinal evidence the PHE report did not establish causal relationships with these other health harms, or in the case of mental health issues, found that relationships appeared to go in both directions. It is also important to recognise that problems with gambling can be one of a number of harms individuals suffer simultaneously; for instance while gambling addiction can impact mental health and wellbeing, poor mental health and heavy alcohol use are commonly suffered alongside gambling harms. For instance, PHE’s evidence review found that the problem gambling rate is 0.3% among graduates, compared to 1.0% for people with no qualifications, and is around three times higher among unemployed people (2.1%) than employed people (0.7%). In a recent pilot for a new approach to collecting data on population problem gambling rates, the Commission found the sample surveyed had a higher problem gambling prevalence rate of 1.3%, although this is an experimental rather than official statistic and the methodology is still being refined. Figures may also have been impacted by the recent fall in gambling participation or other behaviour changes linked to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, including the unavailability of some gambling activities.
- In most circumstances, these types of products do not constitute gambling and fall outside of the Commission’s remit.
- We recognise that identity theft or stealing funds is a criminal matter, and the evidence we received, including from a police organisation, demonstrated the significant harm this can and does inflict on both the gambler and affected others.
- We also recognise that licensing authorities, as well as the LGA and the Gambling Commission, have requested that CIAs are introduced.
- All online play is account-based, and recent years have seen significant strides in the development of harm detection algorithms which monitor every aspect of a customer’s gambling to spot signs of risk and trigger interventions without human input.
- There are numerous charitable lottery operators that operate under certain regulatory constraints.
More generally, the Commission is known to issue cease and desist letters, carry out test purchasing, take steps to disrupt payment flows and engaging with search engines to prevent URLs belonging to unlicensed operators appearing in search results. For instance, the Commission has demonstrated a willingness to initially engage with those that operate (without a licence) offerings that have hints of licensable products before requesting that such entity either apply for and obtain a licence or prevent consumers in Great Britain from accessing such offering, whilst making clear that to continue doing so may amount to an offence under the Gambling Act 2005. Substantial fines have been imposed, individuals have been sanctioned pursuant to their “personal management licences” and licences have been suspended. The British regulatory authorities have taken something of a global lead in the enforcement of regulation, particularly in relation to “source of wealth” and “proceeds of crime” omissions and also failures in social responsibility obligations owed by operators to players. That said, non-gambling services are generally carved out of this wide net – payment processing, marketing affiliates and other ancillary services such as fraud prevention and age verification are per se not regarded as “gambling”.
All casinos listed on Accord Global hold active UKGC licences. The UK government has increased Remote Gaming Duty (RGD) from 21% to 40% of gross gambling yield for online operators. UKGC-licensed casinos can no longer offer autoplay functionality or turbo-spin (accelerated spin) features on online slots.
Officials say two unlicensed premises in Doncaster were targeted a multi-agency operation. The bookmakers says it had ‘no choice’ after rises in gambling tax, national insurance and wages. A big test may come later this year, with indications that there may be a ban on gambling companies sponsoring the shirts of football and darts players. The Commission has already cracked down on one of the bookmakers’ cash cows, the fixed-odds betting terminal. The British public spent £2.2bn on online slot games in 2019, according to the Gambling Commission, and some estimates say the UK now accounts for 15% of these types of games. A Gambling Commission review from June 2025 found that satisfaction scores climbed 6 per cent among users who got richer risk alerts and detailed gameplay reports.
Deposit limits, session limits and other player-centric controls help to empower customers. In the Gambling Act Review call for evidence, the Cashless Group submitted a proposal that transactions could take a minimum time of 30 seconds to roughly mimic the time taken from card insertion up until receiving funds at an ATM. Breaks in play are designed to stop dissociation/disconnection from the world around them, with research suggesting that best practice is to combine breaks in play with responsible gambling messaging.
Fees payable vary depending on the type of activity involved and the scale of the operation, reflecting the different risks they pose. Its core functions are to ensure that only those suitable to hold such licences are granted them, to ensure that those with active licences comply with all the Licence Conditions and Codes of Practice (LCCP), and to take enforcement measures where a licensee fails to meet these high standards. The Gambling Commission is the lead regulator for commercial gambling in Great Britain (as gambling is devolved in Northern Ireland).
Some individual operators have also voluntarily introduced bespoke protections for this group in other areas. In 2021, the Betting and Gaming Council introduced a code of conduct for VIP schemes, which included additional checks before enrolling customers aged 18 to 24 onto schemes, for example requiring review by the holder of a Gambling Commission Personal Management Licence. A recent cross-sectional research study found an association between suicide attempts in 16 to 24-year-olds and problem gambling, even after adjustment for other factors.
While we understand the industry’s desire to remove these limits, we still think that they provide a valuable and proportionate point of friction for the customer that is important, particularly when using a cashless payment method. Industry’s perspective was mixed, with some responses stating that the limits for cashless payments should mirror the current ones to minimise the risk of delay to implementing the relevant legislation. In relation to taking a cautious approach, we think that a £100 limit is appropriate considering that our aim is to try and replicate the process by which someone uses cash to play on a machine. This will act as a safeguard in case someone tries to put more than £100 onto the machine. Using a debit card on a machine is a different experience for the customer compared to cash or tickets where a process such as going to an ATM has been undertaken before the person can put money onto the machine.
Further details on how this will be progressed are outlined below and we also outline a number of initiatives to stimulate interest in gambling research, including with research council funding, and to help build the evidence base. Our aim is to improve the provision of high-quality research on gambling and align treatment services commissioned by the NHS and third sector, ensuring those experiencing gambling-related harms are able to access the treatment and support they need when they need it. As the main commissioner of treatment services, GambleAware continues to provide support and treatment covering a wide spectrum of need outside of severe cases of gambling-related harm and addiction seen through the specialist NHS clinics. The Scottish Government is working with Public Health Scotland to develop an understanding of the scale of harmful gambling in communities by reviewing and developing Scotland-level data. Where operators have breached licence conditions which are designed to protect customers, the Gambling Commission already uses its significant powers to order substantial fines and financial settlements.
Beyond messaging at the point of purchase, the approach taken to safer gambling messaging in advertising since 2005 has predominantly been a self-regulatory one, with the industry funding, designing and delivering its own campaigns. This evidence suggests that a simplified approach to communicating cost-of-play information could be more impactful and reduce harm compared to the currently permitted ‘return to player’ approach. Greater comprehension of the odds was also linked to fewer participants choosing to play, and other research led by Dr Philip Newall has shown including a volatility statement can lower gambling expenditure. Poker machines are programmed to pay out less than you put into them, so the odds are you will lose…The longer you play a poker machine, the more likely you are to lose all the money you have put in the machine. The industry is carrying out its own research in this area, with a project launched through the BGC’s Game Design working group looking at best practice for communicating material information on slot games, casinos not on gamestop including chances of winning and payout volatility, at the point of purchase.
We also welcome international evidence. If you cannot access the link, please send responses to in a document format like PDF or Microsoft Word. Is any of the information you have provided confidential, commercially sensitive or otherwise unsuitable for publication (including in anonymised)? Which of the following best describes your interest in gambling policy (select up to two options)?
Those who lead on these fronts will be best placed to grow sustainably — and defend their licence — in a sector under increasing scrutiny. Operators should keep a clear audit trail of all actions taken — as the ability to evidence compliance is just as important as achieving it. This elevates frontline teams into a key role within the broader safer gambling ecosystem, further emphasising the importance of accountability. The Gambling Journal covers the global iGaming industry through daily news, sharp analysis, and editorially independent company profiles.
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