Gambling Commission – FairOdds Network

April 11, 2025

Gambling Commission outlines rates per licence for statutory levy

The UK Gambling Commission has clarified the rates each licensee will have to pay for the new statutory levy, which the government hopes will raise £100 million (€115.3 million/$130.7 million) for harm prevention against gambling.

The UK statutory levy came into effect on 6 April, having been included in the previous government’s Gambling Act white paper in 2023 with the belief operators weren’t paying their fair share to support gambling harms under the voluntary levy.

Gambling minister Baroness Twycross told the Betting & Gaming Council’s (BGC) AGM in February the new UK statutory levy was a “huge step forward” for the gambling sector, with the hope it will reduce problem gambling.

On Monday (7 April), the Gambling Commission released an update on the levy including the rates each licence holder will be required to pay, with online gambling generally set to face the highest rate.

What are the statutory rates?

The statutory levy rates are as follows:

Online gambling licence typ..

March 20, 2025

Gambling Commission hands AML fine to Corbett Bookmakers

Great Britain’s Gambling Commission has ordered land-based operator Corbett Bookmakers to pay a fine of £686,070 (€818,039/$890,568) after an investigation highlighted numerous social responsibility and anti-money laundering (AML) failings within the offering.

Setting out the case today (20 March), the Gambling Commission said breaches took place between February 2022 and May 2024. Corbett Bookmakers operates 36 premises across the UK.

The retail operator, which has a number of betting pitches across UK racecourses, is also required to carry out a third-party audit to ensure it is effectively implementing AML and safer gambling policies, procedures and controls. This must take place within 12 months of the ruling (6 March).

Corbett allowed players to lose ‘significant’ sums

In terms of social responsibility failures, the commission provided examples of several issues it identified during a two-day compliance assessment. These include failing to flag a consumer who staked £23,674 in..

March 18, 2025

Lords veto gambling sponsorship ban in latest Football Governance bill debate

An amendment to ban gambling sponsorships and advertising in English football has been vetoed in the latest Lords debate on the UK's pending Football Governance bill.

Last night (17 March), the house of lords voted against the amendment via a clear majority of 339 to 74. It was raised in the latest version of the Football Governance bill, which this week finished being debated in the chamber.

The bill, which was initially introduced via the house of lords in October, aims to create an independent football regulator to oversee the sport and handle issues such as club licensing.

It passed the committee and report stages in early March, and the second iteration of the bill has been debated in the house over the last two weeks.

The clause seeking to ban all gambling sponsorships and advertising in the sport was put forward by Liberal Democrat politician Lord Addington in the latest round of amendments.

“Duty to prevent advertising and sponsorship related to gambling in English f..

March 13, 2025

Man charged for illegal gambling operations in UK

A Stoke-on-Trent-based man in the UK has been arrested for running an unlicensed gambling operation between October 2023 and September 2024.

Haydon Simcock of Stoke-on-Trent was arrested by Staffordshire police in September following an investigation by the UK’s Gambling Commission.

The 39-year-old was charged with providing gambling facilities to consumers across the UK without a licence between 8 October 2023 and 11 September last year. Simcock was also charged with advertising betting offers between 26 May 2023 and 1 March 2024.

The UK regulator said it led the investigation into Simcock and worked with the Staffordshire police department on the case. Simcock will appear before Birmingham Magistrates’ Court on 24 March.

Racing Post interview

In February 2024, the Racing Post publication conducted an undercover interview with a Haydon Simcock who claimed to be working for an illegal horse racing bookmaker in the UK. “The Post Bookmakers” took players’ bets via WhatsApp.

He tol..

February 20, 2025

Horse racing betting turnover impacted by affordability checks says BHA

The British Horseracing Authority has blamed the Gambling Commission's financial risk checks for falling betting revenue in 2024, as it says punters have moved to unlicensed operators.

In its BHA racing report 2024 published on 19 February, the authority stated that total betting turnover fell by 6.8% in comparison to the previous year. This is a 16.5% downturn when compared to 2022.

While the BHA would not disclose the betting turnover value, it told iGB that the rate consists of both retail and digital betting.

In its report, the BHA found that the decline in total betting turnover slowed to under 1% in the second half of the year. However, it stated that it had run more races in that period when compared to 2023, adding that the “average race turnover” was down by 4% in 2024.

BHA director of racing Richard Wayman wrote in the report that he has “no doubt” that the drop in betting revenue was “headed by the impact of affordability checks”.

Wayman said these have resulted i..

February 18, 2025

Is the UK online market a growth source or are operators pulling back?

The long-established UK market is going through some seismic regulatory changes. Operators have had to grapple with new measures and impending reforms instituted by the Gambling Commission, raising the question is the UK still a source of growth or are operators pulling back?

The latest data from the Gambling Commission shows that the UK online market is experiencing growth in terms of player activity as gross gambling yield (GGY) from October to December 2024 was up 21% year-on-year to £1.54 billion.

Both online monthly active accounts and total bet and/or spins rose during that period. Total bets and/or spins hit a record of 25.9 billion during the quarter, up 8% year-on-year, while accounts grew by 3%.

Online slots GGY was up 15% to £709 million in the same period, while spins were up 9% to 23.9 billion. Average monthly active accounts were up by 10% to 4.4 million.

Despite this growth, the UK has faced a tough period of gambling reforms relating to the previous government’s Gam..

February 12, 2025

Stake to cease UK operations amid Gambling Commission investigation

Stake will exit the UK market next month amid a Gambling Commission investigation into social media advertising from the operator.

The Gambling Commission made the announcement today (12 February) with TGP Europe Limited (TGP), which operates Stake in the UK on a white-label basis, stating they will shut the site down.

The Gambling Commission has launched an investigation into a video distributed widely on social media that displayed Stake’s logo. The video featured an adult entertainment actress outside Nottingham Trent University.

After meeting with the Commission, TGP said it will immediately stop accepting new registrations to Stake’s UK platform and will remove any redirection links to the main Stake website. TGP will complete a full shutdown of the site by 11 March.

TGP has already faced regulatory scrutiny in the UK after being fined £316,250 (€379,430/$393,951) by the Gambling Commission in April 2023 for anti-money laundering (AML) and social responsibility failures.

“Whe..

February 7, 2025

Great Britain online GGY up 21% in Q4 amid record customer activity

Online gross gambling yield (GGY) in Great Britain increased 21% year-on-year during the fourth quarter of 2024 to £1.54 billion (€1.85 billion/$1.92 billion) as the total number of bets and spins reached a record high.

Data published yesterday (6 February) by the Great Britain Gambling Commission covers the three months to 31 December 2024. It primarily covers online gambling but also references GGY and activity in the land-based betting sector.

The Q4 online GGY figure surpasses the £1.30 billion posted in the same period in the last year. It is also 16.7% ahead of £1.32 billion in the third quarter of last year.

On top of this, overall online bets and spins jumped 8% year-on-year to a record 25.9 billion. However, average monthly active player accounts declined 3% in Q4.

Slots GGY hits £709 million

Slots remain the primary source of GGY in Britain. During Q4, online slots GGY reached £709 million, an increase of 15%. Total spins were also 9% higher at 23.9 billion while average..

February 3, 2025

Many UK players turn to gambling for escapism says Gambling Commission report

In a special report using data from the Gambling Survey for Great Britain, the UKGC has broken down the key motivators for UK gamblers, with escapism one of the driving factors.

On 30 January the UK Gambling Commission published an add-on piece of research to the Gambling Survey for Great Britain (GSGB) report released in July. The survey is the first comprehensive report looking at the behaviour of gamblers in Britain, including what the key motivators are for players across multiple verticals.

This latest report, which cites findings from the Reasons for Gambling Questionnaire (RGQ), considers the relationship between different gambling activities and the players’ reason for engaging in them.

The RGQ contained a series of 15 questions on the reasons GSGB participants gave for taking part in gambling. People who had gambled in the past 12 months were asked to state how often their main reason for gambling was indeed their key motivator across all activities they had listed. They..

December 12, 2024

Gamban founder calls for horse racing to be excluded from affordability checks

Matt Zarb-Cousin, the co-founder and director of external affairs at Gamban, has called for horse racing to be exempt from the UK's new affordability checks.

In August, the Gambling Commission launched its financial risk checks pilot, which triggers more extensive checks for a player when their monthly deposit hits £500. This measure will be adapted in February 2025 when net deposits will be lowered to a threshold of £150 or above. These checks involve the UK’s largest operators and credit reference agencies.

Much of the criticism of affordability checks has come from the horse racing sector, which feels it’s being unfairly treated compared to other more high-risk forms of betting such as slots.

Zarb-Cousin feels that horse racing must separate itself from such verticals, with the belief it shouldn’t be included in affordability checks.

“I think horse racing needs to get as far away as possible from online casino, [which] is bringing the industry down,” Zarb-Cousin said on t..

September 12, 2024

GSGB H1: UK gambling participation flat as nearly a third of customers play non-lottery verticals

The UK Gambling Commission today published its latest iteration of the Gambling Survey for Great Britain (GSGB), looking at gambling participation across the UK between 15 January and 28 April. Participation remained flat on 2023, as majority of participants gambled to win “big money”.
The data follows the annual GSGB survey published for the first time in July and looks at how much UK adults are gambling.

Participation for the actual survey sample increased 8% as the sample size grew from 4,801 in the GC’s equivalent report last year (January to April), to 5,191 this year.

Gambling participation remains flat across the board
Overall gambling participation between January and April was the same as last year at 48% across the entire sample. This dropped to 27% when excluding lottery.

When taking a deeper look at online gambling rates, 16% of participants had gambled via desktop or mobile apps in the last four weeks (excluding lottery). Broken down by sex, slightly more men (20%) p..

August 1, 2024

UKGC data: Record quarter for gambling activity in Britain

Great Britain’s online gross gambling yield (GGY) increased by 12% year-on-year to £1.46bn (€1.73bn/$1.87bn) in Q2, with the total number of bets and spins reaching a record high for the second consecutive quarter.
Players in Britain placed 24.5 billion bets and spins in Q2 (April to June), representing an increase of 11% on last year and a new quarterly record since the UKGC began publishing player data in 2019.

Breaking down the UKGC data, online slots were the primary source of GGY at £642m, noting a rise of 10% from last year. May proved the busiest month for online slots gaming with GGY hitting £217.9m.

Consumers placed a total of 22.4 billion spins during the quarter, which is up 12% on last year. However, slot session length was marginally shorter at 17 minutes, compared to just under 18 minutes in the previous year.

As for how many people were playing online slots, total active players in this segment hit 13.3 million for the period. This represents a year-on-year increase..

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Tag: Gambling Commission