After more than 2 years of waiting, the United Kingdom government published the long overdue gambling white paper on Thursday. The publication of this paper features proposed revamps of Britain’s gambling regulation, marking the most extensive regulatory overhaul in the last two decades – since the ratification of the 2005 Gambling Act.

This white paper comes after several delays and multiple changes in the constitution of leadership in the UK government, from the gambling minister all the way to the Prime Minister. Published by the Department for Culture, Media, and Sports (DCMS), the white paper comprises a slew of recommendations to update the gambling code of conduct in a bid to measure up to the rapidly growing mobile-centric iGaming scene.

Key Components of the Proposed Regulatory Overhaul

From the look of things, a good number of the fronted regulatory changes had already been previously discussed, and so, they were widely expected by industry stakeholders. Others, on the other hand, are less-definitive suggestions that are up for discussion to shed more light on how they will work. Here’s a quick highlight of the most notable proposals in the white paper:

• Affordability Checks

UK’s government is looking to place affordability checks on players’ gambling expenditures based on their net losses. In this case, operators will be required to carry out new checks for any players whose total losses hit £1,000 in a 24-hour period or £2,000 within 90 days. On the other hand, there are ‘passive checks’ to be conducted for overall losses in a month and a year, comprising much lower thresholds of £125 and £500 respectively.

• Stake Limits for Slot Machines

The DCMS intends to introduce a stake limit for online slot machine gaming. However, there was no definitive decision here, only suggesting a limit ranging from £2 to £15 for every round of play. The idea is to set a lower limit per spin (between £2 and £4) for younger players or new accounts compared to up to £15 for older players or accounts with longer gambling histories.

As we speak, there aren’t any limits for online slot machine wagers. However, in-person slot machines in bookmakers, arcades, and pubs have a £2 stake limit while those in brick-and-mortar casinos have wagering limits of up to £5 per spin. Nonetheless, even without imposed online slot machine limits, some online operators in the UK already have a stake limit of £10 per spin.

• Statutory Gambling Operator Levy

A new mandatory gambling operator levy is planned to take over from the current voluntary operator levy that has been deemed unfit for purpose. That’s because at the moment not all UK-licensed gambling companies have been paying their ‘fair share’ as the DCMS put it. Some operators have even parted with a meager £1 in the name of a voluntary levy.

The United Kingdom Gambling Commission (UKGC) is to collect the mandatory levy and will choose which programs to fund for the sake of problem gambling treatment, education, and research. However, here, the scope and design of the statutory operator levy are to be well-defined after more consultations.

• New Gambling Commission Powers

The UK government plans to grant more authority to the UKGC so that it can better handle the black market via court orders to compel ISPs and payment providers to block such operators. At the same time, the UKGC is to evaluate its codes of conduct for white-label casino operators to ensure they are focusing on player protection. Further, there’s a consideration for the UKGC to standardize competitions and prize draws.  

Regulator fees will also be reviewed in 2024 to confirm whether they are sufficient enough to facilitate the smooth operation of the industry regulator. The white paper suggests that the UKGC needs more flexibility so that it can more effectively deal with any emerging challenges and risks posed by the gambling sector.

• New Gambling Industry Watchdog

Besides granting more powers to the UKGC, there’s a proposition to create an independent gambling sector ombudsman that will exclusively handle complaints from players. The information will then be shared with the UKGC to ramp up its enforcement engagements and improve the safety of vulnerable groups. To start, the usage of this new watchdog by operators will be voluntary, though its use could be enforced via DCMS legislation if the industry interest is subpar.

• Tighter Gambling Advertising Code

Research has proven that some groups are at a higher risk of being susceptible to more aggressive marketing practices employed by operators. So, according to the paper, promotions such as Free Spins or bets could unintentionally trigger harmful gambling conduct where vulnerable players may be triggered to spend more than they had planned.

The UKGC will therefore launch a consultation for the institution of advertising controls for promotions for both regular players and VIPS. Licensed operators will also be required to push for compliance with stricter advertising and marketing standards from their affiliates.

• Brick-and-Mortar Gambling

Players under the age of 18 years old are to be banned from playing on class D gaming machines, i.e., fruit machines. Additionally, the UKGC has been encouraged to adjust its age verification slogan to Think 25, from the current Think 21. There are also plans to examine how contactless payments affect player protection in land-based gambling.

The paper further talks of new license arrangements to let in-person casinos start offering sports wagering and host a higher number of slot machine games in their lobbies. Bigger gambling houses will increase their slot machines to table games ratio to 5:1 whereas small casinos will be installing additional slots pro-rata, i.e., depending on their size and volume of non-gaming floorspace.

Other Significant Recommendations

On top of the above proposals, the other recommended measures in the whitepaper include:

• Review the present levy on horserace betting so that some specific forms of racing keep receiving enough funding for future sustenance.
• Assess the rules for designing online games so that the speed of play is limited along with other elements that are thought to aggravate risky gambling behavior.
• Revise the fees that are charged by local authorities to licensed premises, and award additional authority for local leaders to carry out impact assessments for new license applicants.
• Get rid of loopholes to ensure that underage Brits can’t access scratchcards, cash prize fruit machines, and any kind of online gambling.

Consultations to Be Completed By Autumn 2024

All said and done, the published white paper is just but a blueprint for the regulation of the region’s gambling industry. By and large, the proposals in the publication are not cast in stone as they are subject to more consultations and approvals. As such, it will take a few more months before any changes to gambling laws are formalized.

The current parliamentary under-secretary of state for sports, gambling, and civil society, Stuart Andrew, mentioned that the consultation period will be completed before the upcoming general election in 2024. Stuart took over from Paul Scully earlier in February, to become the sixth minister since the beginning of the UK gambling review in late 2020.