Money and rights
We want all licensed operators to provide access to the ombudsman to ensure all customers are protected equally. The information that the ombudsman collates through complaints will also help the Commission in planning its enforcement activity and industry to inform processes and support vulnerable customers. The body would adjudicate complaints relating to social responsibility or gambling harm where an operator is not able to resolve these. We will look at how industry, working with all stakeholders in the sector, can create an ombudsman that is fully operationally independent in line with Ombudsman Association standards, and is credible with customers. Between Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) providers and the Gambling Commission’s contact centre, approximately 2,000 customer complaints per year relate to social responsibility, gambling harm and safer gambling. As the Commission’s process for requesting datasets from across the sector to support its regulatory purposes reaches a sufficient level of maturity, greater researcher access to this suitably packaged and anonymised data will lead to new areas of — and approaches to — research on gambling.
We also acknowledge the costs, not only of servicing the older Category C and D machines, but also in making (predominantly unused) Category C/D machines available to meet ratio requirements. The Commission’s advice is that the government should always ensure there are clear rules or measures in place that ensure a balance of higher and lower stake machine games is always available in high street venues to provide genuine customer choice and allow for lower stakes gambling. Operators have also highlighted the energy and operating costs of machines, noting that older machines are less likely to be energy efficient and more likely to break down. It pointed to research from 2016 which found that 28% of patrons of retail bingo clubs who visited at least once a month played fruit or slot machines and the majority of those who played these games did so for less than 30 minutes. While machines have always been allowed to have multi-stake options, in practice, most earlier machines had a set fixed stake.
The government proposes that the current deposit and committed payment limits should apply to direct cashless payments on gaming machines. This was a reflection of their overall position that cashless gaming should not be permitted on gaming machines. While this situation appears extremely unlikely, we do not see any reason for it not applying to this type of machine as they still carry risks, even if smaller than other forms of gambling on different machines. The government proposes that a maximum transaction limit of £100 should apply to all direct cashless payments made on gaming machines. The vast majority of responses to the consultation agreed that card account verification should be required if direct debit card payments are permitted on gaming machines. The consultation asked the following questions on allowing direct debit card payments on gaming machines.
They also noted the cost of refloating machines, which has become more challenging for pubs where cash payments are not taken over the bar. Evidence submitted by the British Beer and Pub Association shows a post-COVID decline in both the percentage of pubs with machines and machine weekly income. While the existing framework has allowed for some innovation in cashless payments, gambling has largely remained cash-based. They are a significant part of land-based gambling, constituting 51% of non-remote Gross Gambling Yield (GGY) in 2022.
Estimates suggest that there are approximately 300,000 problem gamblers in the UK – and problem gambling rates are higher for players in online casino games than those playing in bingo halls, casinos and pubs. People at risk of gambling-related harm will be better protected under government plans to update betting rules for the digital age. Gamblingpedia UK reviews online casinos through an editorial team process rather than individual persona-based reviews. We only list casinos that are regulated by trusted authorities, ensuring fair play, data protection, and tools for responsible gaming. Recent regulatory changes introduce new stake limits, stronger financial risk checks, and tougher rules for operators, all aimed at reducing harm and improving transparency in gambling. Legal gambling examples include Bet365, William Hill, and other UKGC-licensed operators offering sports betting, casino games, and lottery products with full consumer protections.
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The proposals seek to deliver on the ambition to place the UK’s financial services sector at the forefront of cryptoasset technology and innovation and create the conditions for cryptoasset service providers to operate and grow in the UK, whilst managing potential consumer and stability risks. In most circumstances, these types of products do not constitute gambling and fall outside of the Commission’s remit. These changes, alongside the new agreement between the Commission and FCA, will help to strengthen the response to products which blur boundaries between gambling and other products in future. As outlined above, the Commission consulted on amendments to its licensing approach to make clear that it will not generally license products which appear to the consumer as investment or financial products. The Commission has considered this issue and has concluded that its primary action in this area is to change its approach to licensing products in which long term bets might appear to the customer to be more like investment or financial products.
Following the publication of the independent Football Index report, we also committed to looking at whether gambling companies should do more to demonstrate their ability to cover liabilities arising from long term bets, especially if they make up a large proportion of their sites not on gamstop business. These changes provide greater clarity to applicants that gambling products that could be mistaken for an investment are unlikely to be licensed by the Commission. In response to the recommendations, the Gambling Commission has updated its framework for how it assesses risk so that product novelty is fully considered. Both regulators have taken a number of steps to address points identified in the review, including agreeing to a strengthened Memorandum of Understanding which includes new escalation routes to make sure regulatory impasses and overlaps are identified and quickly overcome. The review set out a range of recommendations for the Gambling Commission and the FCA, including on how they worked together. The review provided a detailed and objective account of the regulatory circumstances around the granting of a licence to BetIndex Ltd, its subsequent suspension and the company’s ultimate financial failure.
All UKGC-licensed casinos are required by law to verify your age before you can deposit or play for real money. We list only trusted casinos with transparent bonus terms. Most UK casinos support Visa and Mastercard debit cards, PayPal, Apple Pay, Skrill, and Neteller. Every casino we recommend is fully UKGC-licensed and independently tested for safety and fairness.Which is the best online casino for me? The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) oversees all online gambling activities in the UK. You must be 18 or older to play.What casino games can I play online?
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Restriction of winning accounts
This participation rate includes forms of gambling which are legal for children (such as private bets or playing Category D gaming machines) and those which are not. Reviewing the data collected from operators on a regular basis will form an important part of this work, offering opportunities to identify areas of non-compliance and risk of harm at an earlier stage, in particular for online operators. A particular concern raised in some submissions to our call for evidence was the practice of encouraging existing customers to try new forms of gambling, known as ‘cross-selling’ (for example giving free online slots spins to sports bettors or heavily marketing casino products to bingo players). Promotional offers in the land-based sector have different features to online gambling, and the vast majority of them (outside the high-end casino and betting sectors) are generally non-monetary or of low value.
What Is a Casino Jackpot? Rules, Prizes & Examples
A statutory levy will help problem gamblers access the right care at the right time, complementing our commitment to provide NHS gambling addiction treatment clinics in every region across the country. Today’s white paper is a huge step towards protecting people from the damaging impacts of gambling. As the detailed implementation of the review now begins, we will also be reiterating to all operators that the Commission will strongly maintain its focus on consumer protection and compliance.
The Local Government Association response stated that there are cases where a licensing authority would like to place further limits on machines in venues but are prevented from doing so (such as in a licensed bingo premises in an area of economic disadvantage). The Bingo Association has provided evidence to show that machines are not the main attraction for customers visiting a retail bingo club. The Gambling Act 2005 does not currently allow for pilots of new machine games that would be inconsistent with legislative provisions on stake and prize, and does not allow for any sub-divisions of Category C gaming machines (unlike Category B machines), which some of these concepts could require. While we are mindful of the potential harms of new machine products, we acknowledge that these may be substantially theoretical until evidence is obtained on their practical risks. The Commission’s advice also noted that enabling such a concept on Category C machines could potentially lead to a £10 stake gaming machine being made available in alcohol-licensed premises such as pubs, outside of the regulatory ambit of the Commission.
Machine allowances in Great Britain are low compared with other European gaming jurisdictions, with only Poland’s upper limit being below that of a 2005 Act Large licence. Only 4 of the 8 Small casino licences have been developed, and the only Small casino to be newly developed (rather than move over from the 1968 Act system) closed after 18 months. The current regulations and statistics relating to the different types of casino licence are set out in Figure 21 below. Through the call for evidence, some licensing authorities voiced concerns about their ability to protect vulnerable communities and to train staff.
Furthermore, The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (building on PHE’s report) has estimated the direct cost to government of gambling harm to be £413 million per year. However, even if we made pessimistic assumptions about leakage, displacement is likely to materially reduce the negative economic and fiscal impact from the drop in online gambling tax revenue. Some money not spent on gambling (for instance due to restrictions to prevent unaffordable losses) will go into other economic sectors which pay tax and produce more jobs per million pounds spent than online gambling. There is already evidence of a steady real terms decline since 2014, with machine GGY being outpaced by inflation by about 40%.
Working with the Gambling Commission and others, we will now make online gambling safer with an overhaul of game design rules to remove the features known to exacerbate risks, and put new obligations on operators to prevent unchecked and unaffordable spending. By the second quarter of 2025, five online casinos based in Britain shut their virtual doors, listing compliance headaches and higher bills as key reasons. A fresh batch of rules is reshaping the day-to-day running of online casinos in the United Kingdom, bringing big changes for operators and players alike. The proposals were opposed by the gambling industry, including the Gibraltar Betting and Gaming Association.They also regulate crypto gambling websites and mitigate the risk of money laundering through such sites.
Progress here will help strengthen the evidence base around gambling and gambling-related harms, and buttress work to increase investment and capacity in the gambling research field. Separately, to support the development of effective treatment interventions, OHID has commissioned the University of Sheffield to calculate harmful gambling treatment needs and demand at local, national and regional levels. Through working collaboratively with NHS and other key delivery partners, including GambleAware, it wants to ensure those experiencing gambling-related harms receive high-quality treatment in a timely manner. It would not be appropriate for the Commission to be responsible for a repository of all data relating to gambling in Great Britain, including on areas such as treatment which fall outside of its remit. Collecting more data will provide rich datasets to assess compliance but will also allow for an increased understanding of consumer behaviour and operator practices which, suitably anonymised, could in turn inform research and understanding of gambling-related harms.
- Others cited research which has been undertaken on safer gambling messaging, including from the Behavioural Insights Team and the Personal Finance Research Centre (University of Bristol).
- We propose that Category D machines are not required to show net position or session time.
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- Evidence from the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities shows that young adults can be particularly vulnerable to gambling related harm, with under 25s having the highest average problem gambling score of any age group.
- This data was collected by the Gambling Commission from two of the major gaming machine manufacturers in Great Britain, representing approximately 35% of the machines in the bingo and arcade market.
The government understands some of the arguments put forward by industry, particularly about the potential impact on player behaviour if net position and time was permanently on display on the machine. Industry also stated that it is a different environment to online gambling where this information can be displayed at all times without impacting the customer’s privacy or influencing other player’s behaviours. This work could then feed into the messaging that is displayed on machines. This will ensure that the breaks designed to allow customers to make more informed or dispassionate decisions about their gambling are supplemented by safer gambling messaging and not used for any other purposes, such as promotional offers. This research recommended that the use of personalised messaging based on an individual’s own patterns of gambling may be more effective than generic messages.
The Gambling Commission collects data on the outcome of individual gaming machine sessions (e.g. whether customers have won or lost overall and their net position). Legislation was subsequently enacted to reduce the maximum permitted stake on B2 gaming machines from £100 to £2, from April 2019. Debit card payments, including contactless, have emerged as an alternative to cash in the wider retail economy, but gambling premises have largely remained cash-based. Secondary legislation (the Gaming Machine (Circumstances of Use) Regulations 2007) prohibits the use of debit cards for direct payment on gaming machines, and prohibits any use of credit cards. Members’ clubs and miners’ welfare institutes may offer up to three gaming machines if they hold a club gaming permit (CGP) or a club machine permit (CMP).
For example, some operators allow customers to stake an additional amount via a tablet on certain numbers being called, with those numbers randomly allocated rather than chosen by the customer. On extending default opening hours, licensed bingo premises can currently apply for a premises licence variation which allows the club to open for longer hours on a permanent basis. There is therefore a risk that sufficient measures to uphold the licensing objectives would not be achievable.
Specific to gambling, the Behavioural Insights Team audit of 10 popular online operators identified a range of design features that may put consumers at risk of harm, including some of those discussed above. This is in contrast to the land-based sector, where electronic gaming machines (offering games which are otherwise similar to some online gaming products) are subject to stake and prize limits set out in legislation. In their view, significant new controls are needed to curb the risk of harm presented by certain features of online gambling including industry practices. We also support allowing trials of linked gaming machines, where prizes could accrue across a community of machines, in venues other than casinos (where they are already permitted).
Similarly, PHE’s evidence review found no substantial evidence to establish that exposure to advertising is a risk factor for harmful gambling, although this may only indicate a lack of evidence rather than a lack of relationship as PHE only examined systematic review level evidence. We are calling on operators to take existing commitments in the industry code further, and use the full potential of available advertising technology to target all online advertising away from children and vulnerable people and those showing indicators of harm. The Commission will also take forward work to strengthen consent for direct marketing for online gambling, with both new and existing customers given more choice on what offers they want (including requiring consent to ‘cross-selling’ new products) and how marketing is sent to them. Although there are no specific laws preventing customers’ use of cryptoassets to fund gambling, operators may only accept them as payment if they can comply with all Gambling Commission requirements, including anti-money laundering, ‘know your customer,’ and safer gambling measures. Not only is self-exclusion an unsuitable substitute for account closure in most circumstances, but it is also a key proxy for harm used by operators to learn how to identify potentially harmful gambling within play data.
Gambling harms can wreck lives, impact families and communities, and even lead to suicide in extreme cases. Gambling in its variety of forms is a popular pastime in Great Britain, with nearly half of all adults participating in at least one form (including the National Lottery) each month. Having a strong regulator with the powers and resources needed to oversee an increasingly high-tech industry is essential to ensuring this. To help ensure that, I encourage all of those with an interest in gambling regulation to continue working with us as we refine the ideas, consult on specifics, and deliver real change. Great Britain has been seen as a world leader in the oversight of gambling, with our comparatively low problem gambling rate but internationally successful gambling sector.
This is consistent with the Commission’s rules on transparency, and the regulator will monitor operators’ compliance in this area. However, operators are required to detail the terms of service, which would include the potential to apply account restrictions, in an easy and accessible way. While informal estimates from operators suggest between 0.7 to 3% of active accounts are restricted, operators tend to use ‘restriction’ to refer to a near-complete withdrawal of services rather than the staking factor restriction outlined above, so the real figure is likely to be higher. Operators already provide the account details to all customers wishing to make deposits by bank transfer, so the details themselves are unlikely to be confidential. This will help limit the ways that those who have taken the decision not to spend money on gambling can do so. However, in spite of most users’ expectations, these payments are not covered by most existing opt-in gambling blocks.