New rules empowering consumers and boosting operator transparency
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.
While this is certainly a reasonable belief to hold, the Financial Conduct Authority is responsible for spread betting. Many British bettors incorrectly assume that spread betting is regulated by the UK Gambling Commission. All gambling business must use an approved alternate dispute resolution body to handle unresolved player complaints. The Commission offers guides on gambling safety, consumer rights, and other pertinent topics.
It suggests that many smaller operators already undertake test purchasing voluntarily or through membership of a trade body, and while there is a financial cost to each test purchase, this is normally low (under £50). The Gambling Commission’s ordinary code says that all land-based licensees should require their staff to check the age of any customer who appears to them to be under the age of 21, also known as ‘Think 21’. While low test purchasing rates demonstrate serious failures of process at venues, this does not necessarily mean that significant numbers of children are illegally accessing gambling. For instance, the Gambling Commission’s Young People and Gambling Survey (2019) found a higher proportion of children than adults reported having visited a casino in the last 7 days. Increasing the age limit to play Category D cash payout slots to 18 years — moving it from a voluntary to a legal footing to include all operators — will break the link between cash payouts and slot-style adult play for children.
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.
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Premier League clubs will still be able to maintain other forms of gambling sponsorship, such as in stadiums, providing it adheres to existing rules on social responsibility and provisions in the forthcoming sponsorship Code of Conduct. We welcome this step taken by the League, which will reduce children’s exposure to gambling logos, particularly when reproduced in children’s products such as stickers and video games, and will help to break the association children may form between gambling brands and their role models on the pitch. In line with changes to the advertising rules, the Premier League has agreed that from the end of the 25/26 season gambling logos will no longer appear on the front of players’ shirts. However, we recognise that sports sponsorship remains an environment where children may be exposed to gambling brands. A commitment only to accept sponsorship from firms operating under licence from the Gambling Commission. A proportion of sponsorship inventory to be used for dedicated safer gambling messaging, compliant with the programme of work at section 2.4 of this chapter.
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.
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?
Amendments to the Gambling Act 2005 (Mandatory and Default Conditions) (England and Wales) Regulations 2007
There is evidence of a concerning trend across these forms of advertising whereby those at the greatest risk of harm have the highest exposure. The limited high-quality evidence we received shows a link between exposure to advertising and gambling participation, but there was little evidence of a causal link with gambling harms or the development of gambling disorder. In particular, individuals with personal experience of gambling harms provided personal accounts of feeling ‘aggressively’ targeted with large quantities of direct marketing and online ads and being ‘groomed’ into problem gambling by VIP scheme managers.
Chapter 5 ‘Review of licensing authority fees’ outlines proposed changes to premises licence fees for Small 2005 Act casinos, which 1968 Act casinos that elect to move onto the new regime will also be subject to. The government intends for operating and premises licence fees to be harmonised between 1968 Act casinos and Small 2005 Act casinos. This measure will also bring greater consistency to the different licensing regimes and greater parity between online and land-based casinos.
Role of Online Casinos and Mobile Gaming
- There are serious consequences for failing to meet the gambling age in the UK, including denying you your winnings if they find out.
- For example, as previously highlighted, evidence provided by Bacta shows that the average stake placed on a Category B3 game is between £1.20 – £1.30, compared to 40p – 60p for a Category C machine.
- Additionally, a mandatory minimum 2.5-second interval between spins is required to slow down gameplay and promote safer gambling.
Gone are the days when online casino players could spend hundreds of quid in a matter of minutes. The whole idea is to strictly limit how much cash can be lost on slot machines and to ensure people are not blowing through their bankroll very quickly. In this article, we’ll look at some of the new online gambling regulations for 2025.
Affordability Checks
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.
Gambling premises, either proposed or existing, within GVZs are expected to take into account the information contained with the Council’s Local Area Profile when completing their local gambling risks assessments. This varies slightly in Wales where betting offices are still in the A2 use class, and in Scotland, as some gambling premises are classed as ‘Class 11’ and some are ‘sui generis’, but both categories require change of use planning permission. For example, an office cannot be turned into an adult gaming centre without planning permission from the planning authority, and it will also need a premises licence before it can open.
The main piece of legislation that regulates both land-based and online casinos in the UK is the Gambling Act, passed in 2005 by the Parliament of the United Kingdom. In the following sections, we will examine the legislation concerning casinos in the United Kingdom, an industry that now generates more than £3.2 billion in gross gaming yield. As noted above, from 1 May 2025, operators may only directly market to customers that have consented to marketing on a granular per product (i.e., casino, bingo, betting) and per channel (i.e., SMS, email) basis. The IA should, however, provide a more robust, balanced assessment of societal costs because of the risk of increased gambling harm, as well as providing more narrative on international evidence. Costs to business include for familiarisation, and purchasing and implementing additional gaming machines. The package is intended to modernise the rules that apply to casinos and to help the sector to grow, while ensuring that appropriate safeguards against gambling-related harm are in place.
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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).
The maximum annual fee for an adult gaming centre (arcade) is £1,000 in England and Wales, and £700 in Scotland. For example, the maximum annual fee for a large casino is £10,000 in England and Wales, and £7,500 in Scotland. Licensing fees vary by premises type. Therefore, the proposals set out in this chapter will only apply to licensing authorities in England and Wales.
For higher-risk play, it means the system is increasingly designed to slow things down, ask more questions, and intervene earlier. Fairness and compliance still come back to licensing—because a regulated operator is the one that can be held accountable for game integrity, complaints handling, and consumer protection. Age and identity checks are still a standard part of UK online play, and they aren’t optional if you’re using a properly licensed operator. Most players won’t see the levy directly on-screen, but you will see the ripple effects through a stronger emphasis on safer gambling messaging and more formal funding routes for national support services. The levy commenced in April 2025, with operators required to pay into it by October each year. The reform era isn’t just about gameplay it’s also about how gambling brands talk to you.
We will look further at the legislative options and conditions under which licensed bingo premises might be permitted to offer side-bets in a more flexible or expanded form within a defined set of parameters with rules to reduce the risk of harm. We propose to adjust the 80/20 ratio which governs the balance of Category B and C/D machines in bingo and arcade venues to 50/50, to ensure that businesses can offer customer choice and flexibility while maintaining a balanced offer of gambling products. With banks withdrawing facilities for processing foreign cheques, we will make a limited change to the Gambling Act which will permit casinos to offer credit to non-UK residents, subject to thorough financial risk and anti-money laundering checks. We will consult further on the details of how casinos will be able to opt to choose this allowance and ratio over their current entitlement, with fees and mandatory licence conditions in line with 2005 Act casinos. This chapter sets out a number of areas where we propose to reset regulation for land-based gambling, while maintaining or strengthening safeguards that are needed to protect vulnerable groups and communities from gambling harm.
Currently, gambling treatment services and support in both countries are mainly provided through primary care and the voluntary sector, though those in need of more specialist treatment services may be referred to the National Problem Gambling Clinics in London and elsewhere in England. While the majority agreed that operator data regarding consumer behaviours at the individual account level would be fundamental to any repository, others also argued for datasets around treatment demand and access, complaints, and wider commercial data. There was widespread support for the creation of a data repository which would be available to researchers, though specific proposals as to the extent of the repository and the sort of data it would collect ranged widely. Three researchers account for nearly 40% of all British studies published on gambling in academic journals between 2019 and 2021.
Given the small number of responses, we assume that the favoured option amongst licensing authorities remains Option 2. Under Option 2(a), the Bingo Association has advised that casinos not on gamestop 2 substantial multi-site bingo club operators and several single site operators would be disadvantaged by comparison to the current regime. Option 2(a) had more varied views across bingo operators.
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.
This is consistent with the intention of the 2005 Act to create destination venues with a balanced offer of gaming products and other leisure activities. Data was provided for a London casino over a four-week period in October 2019 for carded play, which represented 45% of overall slots play. The second recommendation supports amending land-based controls to take account of changes in technology and consumer behaviour, ensuring that amendments include appropriate safeguards for consumers, avoid unintended consequences and have due regard to the original intentions of Parliament.