Anti-money laundering responsibilities for casino businesses
However, excessive commercial caution risks driving customers to the black market where they can be exposed to a variety of risks. It is apparent that some operators may be using restrictions to minimise commercial risk with excessive caution. However, some did acknowledge that operators cannot be expected to endlessly pay expert or even professional bettors as this would inevitably increase the costs for all customers, for instance through worse odds. Some specifically highlighted that restrictions could drive individuals to gamble with unlicensed operators or to illegally use third-party accounts (for example, in a family member’s name) to continue gambling in the licensed sector. The practice of not accepting bets from those who routinely ‘beat the book’ occurred long before the growth of online gambling, but has become far more sophisticated in the digital age.
Some concerns were raised by industry about the technical feasibility of voluntary limits, particularly for Category D crane grab machines. The vast majority of respondents agreed that there should be a minimum transaction time for customers making a cashless transaction on a gaming machine. This could include looking at how customers interact with machines that accept cashless payments, how much they spend and the impact of different protections. As set out above, while chip and PIN could be used as a verification method, we would expect manufacturers and operators to adapt or make new machines that accept payments made by mobile devices which have some sort of biometric verification and meet the SCA standards.
However, as not all licensing authorities charge the maximum fee, this suggests that appropriate flexibility is possible within a cap. One submission stated a preference for a removal non gamestop casinos of nationally set fees, to a flexible system where local authorities can set fees in accordance with their costs (as happens with alcohol and taxi licensing). Some responses also suggested that more guidance, in particular relating to attaching licence conditions, would be helpful. There was some emphasis on cashless gambling and acknowledgement of arguments both against and in favour of allowing greater use of debit card payments. A key point was that only 8 of the 16 licences made available in 2005 have since been developed (with one having subsequently closed), which is in part attributed to licences not being allocated on the basis of customer demand. These submissions called for more powers to be delegated to ministers or the Gambling Commission so that machine games can more quickly adapt to future changes.
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.
In the meantime, the Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) has provided us with an informal evaluation of some of the measures which were voluntarily adopted by most operators in September 2020. While we cannot preempt the outcomes of the Gambling Commission’s review, strengthening the verification procedures for gambling accounts (for instance by matching payment information) should bring benefits for all parties. For instance, we welcome the steps taken by some operators to introduce enhanced security measures, such as multi-factor authentication. With new payment regulations now in force, the Commission can reassess this issue and determine whether new requirements for licensees might be justified to address the risks identified above. SCA has now come fully into force, so card-based e-commerce transactions that are non-compliant should now be declined.
The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) is the independent regulator for all commercial gambling in Great Britain and also oversees the National Lottery under the National Lottery etc. The big 2025–26 moves are the 1% statutory levy on operators (from 1 April 2025) and the 40% Remote Gaming Duty (from 1 April 2026), both enacted via the Finance Bill 2025–26. Those changes are being delivered through updates to the Gambling Commission’s Licence Conditions and Codes of Practice (LCCP) and through the annual Finance Acts, rather than through a new gambling statute.
- The maximum annual fee for an adult gaming centre is £1,000 in England and Wales, and £700 in Scotland.
- 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 UKGC’s October 2025 report (updated March 2026) describes a concrete toolkit for disrupting illegal operators serving Great Britain.
- Therefore, this option would need to be accompanied by a requirement that Category B3 machines in these venues would have certain player safety controls, such as staff alerts where a player meets spend or time limits.
- The primary and intended benefit of this measure is to increase funding for licensing authorities to carry out administrative and enforcement duties in relation to land-based gambling premises in their remit.
There is ongoing work in the sector to develop ways to ensure cashless gambling has safer gambling controls, which we explore further below. The legislation also requires ATMs to be positioned so that any customer who wishes to use them must stop gambling in order to do so. Cash-only gambling was assumed to give players more control over their play by providing natural interruptions in play to obtain more cash, helping players play within budget limits. We would need to do further work to ensure that robust player protections were in place to mitigate any harms, particularly taking into account the issues raised by the Gambling Commission about appropriate legislative safeguards on stake and prize levels, game speeds and the ability to set technical standards. Operators would like to be able to adapt their existing terminals to offer a wider variety of electronic casino games, using RNG technology. Casinos may use electronic terminals to offer games which are based on real events but only games based on the spin of a roulette wheel are currently available.
The Gambling Commission has come under fire for not preventing the spread of Fixed odds betting terminals on the high street. The Commission issued a £600,000 penalty to LeoVegas in May 2018 for producing misleading adverts to customers as well as several self-exclusion failings. The Commission found that Camelot had poor fraud prevention controls in place and that it had breached the terms of its licence. In situations where additional investigation is required, the licence can be revoked.citation needed The range of actions that may need to be taken varies from issuing a warning to inflicting a fine on those who violate licence conditions.
The transition between casino and the small sportsbook section was instantaneous. Sign-up took under three minutes including ID upload, and the funds hit my balance instantly via Apple Pay. UKGC licence number sits in the footer, GAMSTOP integration is active, and affordability checks kick in at the legally mandated thresholds. Every review is based on real-money testing, with sub-ratings for game variety, user interface and banking. We score payout speed, game variety, bonus fairness, mobile experience, customer support, security, and responsible gambling tools, and re-test monthly to keep rankings current.
The 2014 Act changed the licensing requirements so that any company wishing to advertise gambling and take bets from consumers in England, Wales, or Scotland must hold a licence issued by the Gambling Commission. Whilst, those operators who wish to advertise their services in England, Wales, or Scotland, but are based outside the country, have to obtain a licence from the Gambling Commission following the passage of the Gambling (Licensing and Advertising) Act 2014. For remote gambling, the Commission issues licences to those operators whose remote gambling equipment is located in the territory of Great Britain.
This does not apply to a casino which was 1,500m² or larger on 12th May 2025, provided the size of that casino’s gambling area is not subsequently increased and the casino remains in the same premises. New paragraph 3 of Part 5 of Schedule 1 to the 2007 Regulations attaches additional mandatory conditions to converted casino premises licences that apply only if the holder decides to exercise the extended entitlement. The mandatory conditions vary depending on whether the holder of the licence has decided to exercise the extended entitlement, and if not, whether the floor area of the gambling area in the casino is 200m² or more. Paragraph (3) of regulation 4 of these Regulations amends the mandatory conditions attaching to converted casino premises licences in Part 5 of Schedule 1 to the 2007 Regulations. By paragraph (2) of regulation 4, the minimum size of the table gaming area in small casinos licensed under the Act is reduced from 500m² to 250m².
Where machines live
The law places no restrictions on casino patrons; they are free to play casino games without a license and do not need to pay taxes on profits generated from gambling activities. Considered the most significant overhaul of the country’s gambling industry since the 1960s, the Act sets out three main objectives. The Betting and Gaming Act 1960 legalized private casinos for the first time, although it was very restrictive. The main regulatory authority is the Gambling Commission, which oversees all forms of gambling (except spread betting) on behalf of the government’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). In the 1960s the UK finally legalized casino operations, and today gaming establishments are open to anyone aged 18 or over. Although casinos were temporarily outlawed, they continued to flourish underground.
For example, 40% of online gamblers who had experienced mental health problems agreed they did not feel like they were spending real money online, compared to 26% of those with no experience of mental health problems. In 2015, just 23% of online gamblers had used a mobile phone to gamble online in the previous 4 weeks, compared to 50% in 2020. Perhaps more significant change has occurred underneath this wider channel shift, as new technologies have also reshaped where, when and how people gamble online. While the lasting impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic remain to be seen, it seems likely that the shift towards online participation, as we have seen in many other sectors, will continue. In the year to December 2022, 18.6% of British adults had gambled online in the last four weeks, excluding National Lottery products, compared to 14.4% in the year to December 2018. This is because they offer a free entry route (for instance via ordinary post) or have a skill-based element.
Regulation 4 reduces the minimum size of the table gaming area in small casinos from 500. The Act establishes the Commission as the supervisory authority for casinos, granting them the power to provide guidance that assists operators in meeting regulatory requirements. In addition, there is a third category of casino that is permitted through transitional arrangements under Schedule 18 of the Act, which may be referred to as 1968 Act converted casinos.
The Casinos (Gaming Machines and Mandatory Conditions) Regulations 2025
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?
Licensees should consider whether processing of such data is for a permissible purpose, such as it being necessary in the public interest and/or a regulatory requirement. Licensees should also consider to what extent data subject rights, such as the right to erasure and right not to be subject to automated decision-making, may not apply given the relevant lawful basis. Continue to obtain and retain information which is sufficient to satisfy them that underage gambling is not taking place2. Licensees gather and retain personal information on customers in order to enable them to enter into and perform contracts, whilst taking into account their regulatory obligations. Operators should take into account that we may need to obtain such data even after an account has closed in order to establish whether or not a licensee has complied with its regulatory obligations. Licensees should consider what retention period is necessary for any data obtained and processed for self-exclusion or anti-money laundering purposes (whether also obtained for other purposes).
In your view, is there any specific safer gambling messaging that should be considered within cashless gambling? This has been voluntarily adopted by BGC members and its objective is to improve consistency when displaying Safer Gambling information across the land-based sector. As previously discussed, an optimal strategy to combat disassociation when gambling combines breaks in play with safer gambling messaging.
For example, if a casino has 400sqm of gambling space, it would be required to have at least 200sqm of table gaming space. For casinos that are 500sqm or larger, the table gaming area must be equal to or greater than 250sqm. For 1968 Act casinos that meet the same size thresholds as Small 2005 Act casinos, we have proposed introducing a 250sqm table gaming area requirement. However, those casinos that would be allowed to keep their current gambling space would have more flexibility in terms of the layout of their venue compared to Small 2005 Act casinos, which may be deemed unfair by casinos without this advantage. Option (2) would not require currently operating casinos to reduce their total gambling space.
However, some research has been undertaken in addition to the PwC report; for example, the European Commission in 2017 estimated that illegal sports betting accounted for 2.2% of the total online sports betting market in the UK. Secondly, until its recent fees uplift, the Gambling Commission’s resources for responding to the black market were concentrated on acting on complaints and intelligence with a risk-based approach. Responses from some campaign groups, Parliamentarians and academics strongly disagreed and said that the industry was exaggerating the size of the illegal market in order to deter the government from imposing tighter restrictions on the licensed gambling sector. Combined with the changes the Commission has made following its consultation on licensing and enforcement and the legislative changes we have proposed, it will be better enabled through its powers to penalise operators who have not abided by the law.
The UK Gambling Commission notes a 4.2 per cent drop in online harm since affordability trials began late 2024. Still, industry leaders tread cautiously; the Betting and Gaming Council warns that heavy red tape may nudge bettors toward risky offshore sites that skirt UK safety rules. An online casino guide here shows which brands follow the 2025 rules on game fairness and affordability tracking, and such guides have become a compass for users moving through the tighter online world. Online casino operators have been forced to make major tweaks in order to stay inside the new rulebook. Although the reforms attempt to rebalance gambling freedom with public protection, industry groups still worry about how expensive and practical the changes will prove to be. 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.
As part of this, we will work with UKRI to explore the development of rapid-response funding to support research into fast-paced developments in the gambling field as well as longer term funding options for longitudinal research and opportunities to grow the academic community in the UK. We will organise a series of workshops later this year, hosted with UKRI, to stimulate interest in gambling research among researchers across a range of academic disciplines. We will consult on the details of how the levy will be designed including proposals on the total amount to be raised by the levy and how it will be constructed and will. Government will introduce a statutory levy paid by operators and collected and distributed by the Gambling Commission. However, we believe there is further scope to increase the demonstrable independence of spending, government oversight regarding commissioning decisions and the available investment in high quality research to inform policy and regulation. As mentioned above, the largest four operators have directed their contributions to the charity GambleAware which has supported the provision of important research, prevention and awareness-raising projects, and crucial treatment services.
We have reviewed and analysed the evidence received through both consultations to arrive at an evidence-based policy position which we believe meets our objectives. Evidence was received in response to the land-based gambling consultation and through an additional supplementary consultation which focused on this reform specifically. Operators will also need to be able to demonstrate that their new gambling and non-gambling areas abide by the updated rules in the Mandatory and Default Conditions, which will include the sliding scale and other restrictions on the sizes of different areas of the casino.
Improvements from online platforms
It requires remote gambling operators selling into the British market, whether based here or abroad, to hold a Commission licence to enable them to transact with British consumers. All online casinos must also display the net spend, essentially the profit/loss for the player, and the time they’ve spent gambling. In gambling circles, it has been predicted that 2025 will be a ‘heavy enforcement’ year for online casinos, so they need to be on their best behaviour. We have been provided with a number of scenarios in respect of which industry has expressed concern that GDPR will prevent them from processing personal data needed to comply with licence conditions and further the licensing objectives. In fact, the UKGC now analyses and assesses everything from random number generators, to the way online casinos hold player funds, to ensure that players won’t ever fall foul of rogue operators. These limits apply to all online slots at UKGC-licensed casinos and are designed to reduce the risk of significant losses from high-speed games.
