Government response to measures relating to the land-based gambling sector
On balance, we do not believe that it is proportionate to mandate that ‘cash-out’ Category D slot-style machines be moved to age-restricted areas. Industry responses highlighted that it is disproportionate to require that these machines be moved to an age-restricted area for 2 key reasons. The majority of these responses came from industry operators. Twenty-two per cent of respondents stated that these machines should not be placed in age-restricted areas. The rationale most commonly expressed for the movement of these machines into age-restricted areas was to increase the effectiveness of staff monitoring. Sixty-seven per cent of respondents to this chapter of the consultation stated that ‘cash-out’ Category D slot-style machines should be required to move to an age-restricted area.
Stage 1: Light-Touch Financial Vulnerability Check
You are required to tell us about certain things that happen in your business, these are dependent on the licences and activities you hold. Including information on how we carry out assessments, your responsibilities under the LCCP and other gambling-related legislation. Guidance and information for running a compliant gambling business.
Ways to stay safe when gambling
If you’ve played online casino in the UK for any length of time, you’ll know the rulebook never truly sits still. £1 million is a hefty fine, but it is more of a statement to operators out there and showcases how serious the UKGC is about protecting consumers from problem gambling. Self-exclusion helps problem gamblers and allows them to request gambling operators to deny them service. A recent example of how much the UK takes this seriously can be seen with SkyBet, one of the largest online betting providers in the country. The UKGC does not go after individuals who are participating in illegal online gambling. Online gambling, also known as remote gambling, is considered legal in Great Britain if the operator possesses a licence from the UKGC.
What measures, if any, do you think venues should adopt to ensure that no under-18s play on ‘cash-out’ Category D slot-style machines if the age limit is introduced? Should ‘cash-out’ Category D slot-style machines be required to move to age-restricted areas in venues? Should the government introduce an age limit on ‘cash-out’ Category D slot-style machines to 18 and over? This does not distinguish between ‘cash-out’ and ‘ticket-out’ machines. The survey found that in the last 12 months, 3% of respondents had spent their own money on fruit or slot machines and a total of 6% had experience of playing on fruit or slot machines.
- However, the system is designed to protect vulnerable individuals and uses existing financial data infrastructure (similar to credit checks for mortgages or phone contracts).
- 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.
- This article walks through the main 2025 changes, explains the impact on operators and on ordinary players, and charts the industry’s uneven path forward.
- 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.
- Licensed bingo premises include a range of establishments such as retail bingo clubs, high street arcades (which have a smaller bingo offer via bingo machines), and bingo venues in holiday parks.
The House of Lords Select Committee report recommended in 2020 that casinos should be regulated under the same system regardless of when their licence was created. It was intended that the 2005 Act licences would be taken up and, subject to evaluation, more created, and perhaps that the 1968 Act casinos would be phased out or move over to the 2005 Act system. A regional casino, which could have 1000+ machines with unlimited stakes and prizes, was provided for in the Act but the secondary legislation never passed. The Gambling Act 2005 provided for a new concept of casino, with a small number of two types of licence created, known as Large and Small 2005 Act casinos.
The 2023 White Paper triggered the biggest round of gambling law changes since the Gambling Act 2005. These are the milestones that still shape gambling policy and oversight today. British gambling legislation has been rewritten several times since 1960, usually when technology outgrew the old rules.
Research based on combined data from Scottish and English health surveys over the last decade indicates that scratchcard play could be a risk factor for young people. Large society lottery operators sell a wide range of products (lottery tickets, scratchcards and online games) through a range of means including retail, door-to-door canvassing, phone, post, email and online. The growing body of evidence helps us to understand how harmful gambling may relate to other harmful behaviours or vulnerabilities, and how tackling gambling harms requires a broad approach. PHE also examined systematic peer-reviewed research to identify risk factors for gambling and harmful gambling. Gambling Commission data suggests that at-risk and problem gambling rates among 11 to 16-year-olds have increased since 2014, although significant changes to the survey methodology make year-to-year comparisons difficult.
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 the risks vary by product and other factors, gambling participation is generally not in itself harmful and may even be positive. A YouGov survey commissioned by GambleAware estimated that 6% of the population are negatively affected by someone else’s gambling (for example through relationship strain or financial hardship) and that women are overrepresented in this category. However, a small proportion do suffer significant harm as a result of gambling, and the PHE evidence review included a detailed quantitative analysis on this issue. It is clear that gambling-related harms can ruin lives, wreck families, and damage communities, with issues including mental health and relationship problems, debts that cannot be repaid, crime, or even suicide in extreme cases. However, Public Health England (PHE) compiled, assessed and reviewed evidence on gambling participation and harm as part of the Gambling-related harms evidence review which was initially published in September 2021, then revised in January 2023 by the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities.
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 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.
For most recreational players these checks run automatically in the background using open banking data and credit reference agency information. This is a minor inconvenience for most recreational players but an important harm-reduction measure. High-stakes slot players are most affected; those betting £1–£2 per spin will notice no practical difference.
Mandatory Deposit Limits (June
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.
This includes ensuring that appropriate safeguards against gambling-related harm are in place. The policy proposals set out in this government response are intended to modernise the land-based gambling sector and help it to thrive sustainably. In September 2019, the Gross Gambling Yield (GGY) generated by remote gambling overtook that of land-based gambling for the first time (excluding lotteries). The white paper acknowledged that the emergence of new technology and the availability of online gambling since the Gambling Act 2005 came into force has substantially altered the gambling landscape. Measures relating to casinos – one draft affirmative and one made negative statutory instrument. This response provides non-remote gambling operators with clear notice of our intention to introduce the measures set out within this government response.
We propose to align the lifting of the prohibition on direct debit card payments on gaming machines and the introduction of player protections within regulations with the Gambling Commission’s review of the Gaming Machine Technical Standards. Under the current rules, there is a risk that operators entering the market might use in-fills and tablets to account for the totality of their Category C and D offer while offering Category B machines exclusively on more popular cabinet machines. By contrast, Option 2(a) would likely increase the numbers of Category B cabinets in a similar proportion to Option 1, while safeguarding against the possible scenario in which Category B machines become the only cabinet gaming machines offered. The concern raised was that any variation of Option 2 would be damaging to tablet gaming machine manufacturers as this would likely lead to vast numbers of these machines being removed by operators. These responses primarily came from small businesses who supplied tablet gaming machines to the market.
Please provide any evidence you have on the potential harm of implementing Options 1, 2 and 3 on customers. If available, please provide evidence of the potential impact of Options 1, 2 and 3 on the GGY of operators and on the wider gambling sector. A healthier land-based gambling sector, able to compete on a more even basis with similar online gambling opportunities, is likely to support local employment opportunities, regeneration effects and contribute to business rates. We do not currently have sufficient data to estimate the likely uptake of additional Category B machines under each option, nor on how the average GGY per machine will change as a result. In the financial year to 2022, the average GGY per Category B machine (across all licenced land-based venues) was £30,360, compared to £2,030 per Category C machine and £1,350 per Category D machine. Category B machines are significantly more profitable for operators earning considerably higher GGY than Category C and D alternatives.
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.
First, use the casino’s internal complaints procedure and allow up to 8 weeks for a response. The aim is to identify and protect financially vulnerable players without disrupting the majority of customers. Stage 1 (light-touch) triggers when net losses reach £125 within a rolling 30-day period, using background financial data. Affordability checks are a two-stage system designed to prevent gambling beyond your means.
Industry submissions put forward a range of proposals for changes to the rules that could allow the sector to develop and thus support the Review’s objective of ensuring the regulatory landscape for land-based gambling reflected changes since 2005. The Act embedded a principle that gambling should generally take place in gambling-specific premises as opposed to places where it would be incidental to the establishment’s primary purpose, such as cafes or taxi offices. The fees must be set on a cost recovery basis to cover the cost of administration and enforcement (e.g. inspections), and are therefore essential to ensure that licensing authorities can properly regulate gambling in their areas. Scottish Ministers also have the power to set application and annual fees for premises licences, which differ from the fees set out for England and Wales, set out in the Gambling (Premises Licence Fees) (Scotland) Regulations 2007.
However, some betting shop operators were aligned with the non-industry responses and believed that the session time and net position should be displayed at all times. We propose that Category D machines are not required to display safer gambling messaging beyond the current requirements placed on these machines. The government proposes that the existing safer gambling messaging is used on machines that accept cashless payments. Some industry responses also argued that members of staff in casinos already monitor players and interact where appropriate.
Online casinos, for example, must prevent underage gambling, display the return-to-player (RTP) percentages for all games, and promote non gamestop casino fair and responsible gambling. This includes poker, roulette, blackjack, and other casino games, as well as online slot games.” In addition, all online casinos must use software from suppliers that hold a license from the Gambling Commission. Now, all firms that wish to advertise and provide gambling services to customers based in the UK must obtain a license from the UK. All other machines, namely Categories A, B, and C (including Category B3A lottery-style machines), are restricted to those aged 18 and over. Online casino operators are required to carry out age and identity verification procedures (updated in 2019) for all newly registered customers. It also regulates the remote gambling sector, which includes online bookmakers, bingo sites, and casino websites.
