UK LEGAL
2024, just before the announcement of a general election, the previous government confirmed that it would permit additional gaming machines in qualifying 1968 Act casinos, increase machine-to- table ratios for 2005 Act small casinos, introduce cashless payments and allow sports betting in all casinos. As with the slots stake limit, secondary legislation is needed to implement these changes, but the new Labour government has so far given no indication of its intentions with regard to these proposals. There must be a risk that they are put on a back burner, given that they don’t obviously pursue the objective of “strengthening protections”. The proposal to allow casinos to offer credit to wealthy foreign visitors has received little mention since the white paper and this may be one that won’t see the light of day.
email or text) and ‘per product’ (betting, casino or bingo) basis. The timeframe for implementing these changes has recently been extended from the planned January 2025 to May 2025, to allow sufficient time for the technical changes needed.
Bonuses and incentives
The Commission has yet to publish a response to its consultation on the structure of incentives such as free bets and bonuses. It is considering banning or limiting wagering requirements applied to bonus funds and preventing operators from mixing products within an incentive, so that promotional offers may relate to one gambling product only.
REFORMS BEING PROGRESSED BY THE BGC
The industry body the Betting and Gaming Council has taken responsibility for progressing some reforms, particularly those to be implemented through voluntary initiatives.
Ombudsman
An ombudsman scheme proposed by the white paper is expected to deal with, and if appropriate provide redress for, complaints from consumers about a gambling operator’s compliance with social responsibility obligations. Work to establish the proposed gambling ombudsman is being led by the BGC, who initially indicated in oral evidence to the DCMS committee that it expected the ombudsman to be operational in around summer 2024. The BGC has not published any update on this timetable, but it appears there is still significant work to be done.
Sports sponsorship
A gambling sponsorship code of conduct was supported in the White Paper, with the intention this would be developed by sports governing bodies. Some good progress has been made on this with assistance from the BGC, with codes now published by a number of sports including football, horse racing, snooker, boxing and darts. These codes are based on the same guiding principles including reinvestment of a proportion of sponsorship income in grassroots, limiting the reach of sponsorship to under 18s and vulnerable adults, ensuring sponsors
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are licensed by the Gambling Commission and taking steps to protect betting integrity. The codes add to the voluntary agreement by the football premier league to ban front of shirt sponsorship by gambling businesses after the 25/26 season.
REFORMS REQUIRING LEGISLATION Slots stake limits
In the white paper, a recommendation was made that online slots games be subject to a stake limit, “bringing them more in line with the land-based sector”. A further consultation took place to seek views on options for this limit, between £2 to £15 per spin. In February 2024, the decision was announced that stakes would be limited to £5 per spin, or £2 per spin for customer aged under 25, from September 2024. However, this change needs to be implemented through regulations, which would impose a new licence condition. Before the necessary legislation could be presented to Parliament a general election took place, leading to a change of government. As yet, the new Labour government has made no announcement to either affirm or amend this proposal, nor has it presented the necessary legislation to Parliament. It seems likely this change will go ahead, however is now unlikely to come into force until at least Spring 2025.
Land-based casinos
A range of reforms were proposed for land-based casinos in the white paper, underpinned by an idea of increasing parity with the online sector. In May
Gambling Commission fees and powers The white paper proposed to increase the Commission’s powers to tackle the black market, by giving it the ability to apply for court orders to force IP address and domain providers to take measures to block access to illegal online gambling operators. These powers were contained in the draft Criminal Justice Bill, which was not passed before the change of government. A new power for the regulator to set its own fees was also proposed in the white paper. These measures require primary legislation, so will only be progressed as and when they become a priority for the government.
Statutory levy
A statutory levy on all gambling operators is already allowed for within the Gambling Act 2005 but this power had not yet been activated. The previous government proposed to introduce a levy for all operators with annual GGY over £500,000, at the rate of 1% of GGY from all online operators (except society lotteries), 0.4% from non-remote casino and betting operators and 0.1% from non-remote arcades, non-remote bingo and all society lottery operators. The levy would be collected and distributed by the Gambling Commission, either along with the operator’s annual fee or on a set date and failure to pay would be grounds for licence revocation. Secondary legislation must be passed to put this into force.
Melanie is a gambling regulatory lawyer with 13 years’ experience in the sector. Melanie advises on all aspects of gambling law including licence applications, compliance, advertising, licence reviews and changes of control. She has acted for a wide range of gambling operators including major online and land-based bookmakers and casinos, B2B game and software suppliers and start-ups. She also frequently advises operators of raffles, prize competitions, free draws and social gaming products. Melanie has a particular interest in the use of new technology for gambling products and novel product ideas.
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