Review of the UK Gambling Act 2005: what changes can we expect?

The Gambling Act 2005, which came fully into force on September 1, 2007, aimed to consolidate existing gambling legislation and update the regulatory structure for online gambling, casinos and fixed odds betting terminals in betting shops. The UK market accelerated as the Act increased competition and allowed betting companies to advertise and in the decade to March 2019, total gross gambling yield rose from £8.4bn to £14.3bn.

Key principles of the 2005 Act

The three key principles of the Act are that: gambling should not be associated with crime in any way; that gambling should be fair and transparent, and children and other vulnerable people should be protected from being harmed or exploited by gambling. However, on the last point, the percentage of those who identified as problem gamblers increasing from 0.9 per cent in 2012 to 1.2 per cent in 2016, according to the NHS. The Act also created a new unified industry regulator, the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC).

Gambling (Licensing and Advertising) Act 2014 

Even before the latest planned review of the 2005 Act, the Gambling (Licensing and Advertising) Act 2014 closed loopholes in the Gambling Act 2005, tightening up the...