UK Gambling Laws and Regulations

What is Gambling?

The UK law defines gambling as “betting, gaming or participating in a lottery”. The current legislation sets out different rules and regulations for six situations where gambling may occur:

1. Arcades: most gaming centres require a UKGC licence to operate
2. Lotteries: including raffles, tombolas, and sweepstakes
3. Bingo: both in bingo halls and online
4. Betting: All betting services require a licence, whether the bets are placed at a bookmakers, an event, or online.
5. Gaming machines: Both slot machines and betting terminals require a licence to operate. This includes certain conditions to protect gamblers including clearly displaying the odds or RTP.
6. Casino: Both online casinos and physical venues must be licensed and regulated to accept UK players.

A History of Gambling in the UK

Gambling is legal in the UK, and because the market is heavily regulated by the UK Gambling Commission it is one of the safest places to gamble in the world.

Gambling has been a popular pastime for centuries, and King Charles II popularised horse racing at NewMarket in the 1600s. However, the first laws to legalise other forms of gambling didn’t come into effect until the 20th century.

Here is a brief history of gambling in the UK:

• 1600s: An Act in 1698 ruled that lotteries in England were by default illegal unless specifically authorised by statute.
• 1920s: The Racecourse Betting Act 1928 set up the Racecourse Betting Control Board (later the Tote) to handle on-course cash pool bets on horse racing, as a safer alternative to the illegal off-course bookmakers.
• 1930s: 1934 Betting and Lotteries Act legalised small lotteries, but they were limited in the geographical scope and maximum stakes.
• 1960s: The UKs first gambling regulations to take into account casino games was the Betting and Gaming Act of 1960. The first casino in the UK was opened in 1961 by George Alfred James, the Casino Club Port Talbot in Wales. A few years later The Gaming Act 1968 liberalised the law, and allowed more casinos to open.
• 2000s: The Gambling Act of 2005 took action to oversee online gambling as well as offline, and created the UK Gambling Commission to act as a licensing body. The British Horseracing Authority is established as the governing body for the UK racing industry.
• 2010s: The Gambling Licensing and Advertising Act of 2014 mandates that all remote operators need a UK licence and are subject to taxes on profits from UK players.
• 2020s: From 14 April 2020 British gamblers are no longer allowed to use credit cards to fund their accounts. The Government begins to collect evidence for a review of the Gambling Act, and the White Paper is finally published on 27 April 2023.

Current UK Gambling Laws and Casino Legislation

In the UK we have one of the clearest, and most thorough, set of laws around legal gambling in the world. This is good news for players as it means that you can play safely at licensed casinos and bookmakers, both on-and off line. All British players are protected from unscrupulous gambling operators, and we have assurances that the games we play are fair and unbiased.

Minimum Age

You must be over the age of 18 to gamble in the UK, whether this is online, or in a casino, betting shop or arcade. All online gambling sites are legally required to request ID from all players to prove their age and prevent underage gambling.

The National Lottery has recently raised its minimum age to 18, but current exceptions still exist for some scratch cards, and the football pools where the minimum age is 16.

The UK Government is committed to stopping underage gambling, and there are a range of advertising regulations to stop gambling operators targeting children, or portraying gambling as an aspirational activity.

Taxation

Fortunately, gamblers do not need to pay any taxes on their winnings in the UK. Hooray! Even if you consider yourself a professional gambler, the HMRC currently doesn’t consider these activities as trade, so no gambling winnings are subject to taxes.

All gambling operators must pay a 15% tax on all profits generated from UK players.

Credit Cards

In April 2020 the UK Government outlawed the use of credit cards to gamble. This is to protect vulnerable players from running up debts due to gambling activities.

E-wallets provided a possible loophole to this, if customers topped up their accounts with a credit card. Fortunately the major e-wallet providers: PayPal, Skrill, and Netteller, quickly offered assurances to gambling companies that customers cannot transfer funds for gambling if they have come from a credit card, so we are still able to use these at online casinos.

Crypto Payments

It is not illegal to gamble with cryptocurrency (or crypto-assets) in the UK at the moment, but Crypto Casinos will find it difficult to get a UKGC licence to operate legally.

This is a relatively new area for the UKGC, and they have recently published some guidance on blockchain technology and the gambling industry.

This outlines the following issues, that run counter to the aims of the current government legislation around gambling:

• Companies applying for a UKCG licence must be able to prove the source of their funds in order to ensure that they are not funded by criminal activities. The anonymity afforded by some crypto-assets makes this difficult to achieve.
• There are questions around what information will be provided to consumers to ensure they are aware of the risks associated with using crypto-assets as a payment method
• Casinos must also find a way to adequately assess the source of the funds from the user if they are paying with crypto
• The fluctuations of the value of crypto compared with traditional currency needs to be considered more thoroughly, particularly in regard to deposit limits and anti money laundering triggers.

What is the UK Gambling Commission?

The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) was founded as the main regulatory body for gambling in the 2005 Gambling Act, and it officially took over from the previous Gaming Board in 2007. Today the UKCG sits within the Government’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport (DCMS),

The Gambling Act of 2005 had a huge impact on the gambling industry in the UK. Its main objectives were to:

• Prevent gambling from being a source of crime or disorder, being associated with crime or disorder, or being used to support crime.
• Ensuring that gambling is conducted in a fair and open way
• Protect children and vulnerable adults from being harmed or exploited by gambling.

Now, any company which takes money from British players for the chance of winning a prize has to apply for a UKGC licence. The application process is stringent and all gambling operators must provide evidence that sufficient safeguards are in place before they will be granted a remote gambling licence. They must demonstrate a clear and transparent ownership structure, sufficient financial safeguards, fair gaming systems, and appropriate player protection.

You can check that a new online casino is legit by looking for the UKGC licence. You will find the licence number at the bottom of the online casino or betting site’s web page and you can check the details in the Gambling Commission’s online register.

The UKCG also investigates any breaches of licensing conditions, and failures to comply with specific elements of the gambling act. Casinos risk having their licence removed, or fines of millions of pounds, for failing to comply.

Here is some more detailed information on the specific standards that online casinos must meet to achieve a UKGC licence:

Keeping Your Money Safe

The UKGC will insist that all online providers use the latest ssl encryption technology to make sure that every online real money transaction is secure. They also insist that player funds are held in a separate account from the company’s operating cash, so that it is better protected if the site runs into financial difficulties. This can give you peace of mind that your money won’t be lost should the business go bankrupt.

Player Protection

As well as proving that they will protect your finances and personal data, applicants for a UKGC licence must also show that they are committed to responsible gambling. This includes putting in place appropriate Know Your Customer (KYO) processes to protect vulnerable players and prevent children from gambling. When you first register at a casino or bookmaker you will be asked to provide documentation to verify your age and identity, and they may run affordability checks where you need to prove your source of funds.

Fair Gaming

A common misapprehension is that online casino games are rigged, especially when players have a run of bad luck. In actual fact, all online casino games, including slots, roulette, and blackjack, have to use a RNG (random number generator) to determine the outcome. The RNG software should be tested by independent organisations such as eCogra to ascertain that it is fair and unbiased. This also means that there is no way to cheat when playing online.

The UKGC also demands that online casinos give players realistic expectations of their gaming experience. This includes governance around advertising standards, and making sure that they publish the RTP (return to player) rate of all virtual games.

The RTP is a percentage of how much of the money that players put into a game will be returned as winnings on average. For example, a slot with an RTP of 96% would mean that for every ￡100 that is spent on that game you can expect to win back ￡96. This statistic is based on a long time period, and is a guideline for players rather than a guaranteed return.

Responsible Gambling

As part of the objective to protect players, all UK online casinos must provide players with tools to help them gamble more responsibly. These may include options such as deposit limits, time-limits, self-exclusion and reality checks.

Furthermore, players are legally required to be able to access information on their spending and losses, and games are not allowed to have animations which celebrate net losses as wins. This is to help you get a more accurate picture of your gambling activity.

GamStop

GamStop is a self-exclusion programme that helps players control their online gambling. If you need a timeout you can register with GamStop and be prevented from using gambling sites run by companies licensed in Great Britain, for a fixed time period.

The UKGC has made it compulsory for all licensed casinos to be part of the GamStop Scheme. We only recommend legit and licensed sites who are committed to player safety, so you will not find any non GamStop casinos on our site.

What Next? The 2023 Gambling White Paper

On 8 December 2020, the MP Nigel Huddleston, announced a call for evidence to begin the Gambling Act Review. This was delayed several times due to the pandemic and changes in the government, but the paper was finally published in April 2023.

One of the main aspects of the paper is to better protect players from unsustainable losses by making gambling operators act earlier with affordability checks. They are also planning to consult on measures to give greater protections for 18–24 year olds who the evidence shows are at heightened risk of harm.

The football Premier League has also made a voluntary decision to ban gambling advertising on shirts from the end of the 2025/2026 season.

These are the suggestions from the government paper High Stakes: Gambling Reform for the Digital Age:

• A statutory gambling operator levy to ensure that operators help fund treatment services and research, including through the NHS. ?Currently the size of the contribution is not mandated and not all betting companies pay their fair share – some have paid as little as ￡1.
• New stake limits for online slots games that will be between ￡2 and ￡15 per spin. Frictionless player protection checks to protect those most at risk of harm before unaffordable or harmful losses are incurred.
• Extra powers for the Gambling Commission to enable it to tackle black market operators through court orders and work with internet service providers (ISPs) to take down and block illegal gambling sites.
• Rules to prevent bonus offers harming vulnerable people – for example, looking at how free bets or spins are constructed and targeted to stop them being harmful.
• Closing loopholes to make sure under-18s cannot gamble either online or via cash fruit machines. This includes bringing football pools betting in line with National Lottery play for over-18s only.
• A new industry ombudsman to deal with disputes and rule on redress where a customer suffers losses due to an operator failing in their player protection duties.
• A review of the current horserace betting levy to make certain racing continues to thrive.

Read more in our latest summary of the new gambling law recommendations.