Regulatory Changes by the UK Gambling Commission: What You Need to Know
The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) has revealed major regulatory changes that are meant to increase consumer protection and responsible gambling. These changes that will take effect in 2025 include mandatory deposit limits, stronger protections for customer funds and changes to the statutory levy contributions for gambling operators. These are among the most significant updates in recent years and show the Commission’s sticking to its mission of enhancing safety in gambling. Here’s what these new rules mean for players and the industry.
Mandatory Deposit Limits for New Players
From October the 31st, 2025, all UK licensed gambling operators will be expected to encourage new customers to set deposit limits before they can deposit. This is aimed at helping the player with the gambling spend from the start and encouraging a responsible gaming stance.
Customers will be asked to review their deposit limits every six months. This is a “gentle reminder” to the client of how much they are spending when gambling. While this development is meant to assist player gambling spend, it can be quite restrictive.
Techopedia’s Genevieve Cruz explains that a select few offshore gambling platforms, that operate outside of the UK’s jurisdiction, provide players with no limit wagers. This means that you can go all in at these no-limit casinos, and expect higher deposit and withdrawal limits, and can wager higher on specific games.
Changes to the Statutory Levy Contributions
In November 2024, the UKGC implemented a statutory levy that will oblige gambling businesses to contribute between 0.1% and 1.1% of their GGY. These levies will go to research and prevention of gambling related harms and treatment of the same.
The percentage of contribution will vary with the kind of gambling service and its risk category. The change removes the previous requirement for operators to provide voluntary financial support to certain organisations, to ensure that the process is better regulated and explained. This reform is to ensure that all efforts to address excess gambling and its effects are done in a more systematic manner.
The levy is expected to raise funding for essential initiatives, such as:
- Treatment of excess gambling services
- Education and awareness campaigns
- Research on gambling behaviors
Some of the industry players however have expressed concerns about the financial impact of the levy on the affected industries, especially the small operators. The extra expense may not be too much for the larger companies, but for the smaller gambling companies with low margins, the levy may be a problem for the operation.
Increased Transparency on Customer Funds Protection
Another major update expected on October 31, 2025 is the requirement for operators to actively engage their customers in the safety of their money. If customers’ funds are not insured in the case of the operator’s bankruptcy, the client must be informed of the risk within the first 6 months of the partnership.
This measure is expected to assist consumers to make more reasoned choices while gambling. Therefore, by increasing the level of exposure, players will be in a better position to know the safety of their money in case of loss, in the event of the company’s failure.
Today, the level of customer fund protection is quite different, some companies guarantee high levels of protection while others offer none at all. These rules will enable the players to distinguish between the operators by financial security and therefore to exclude the risks. This is especially important in light of the increasing number of cases when gambling companies have gone bankrupt and players have been unable to withdraw their funds.
Several industry witnesses have opined that this change may lead to more competition among the operators to offer better security of the funds received by consumers. However, some of the operators may face challenges in complying with these new requirements and may seek to recoup their costs from players through higher fees or lower bonuses.
Industry Reactions to the Changes
The gambling industry has different reactions to these regulatory changes. But then, measures such as responsible gambling and protection of the vulnerable are seen as a positive step by some of the operators while others aren’t so sure about the effects on customer interaction and business. For instance, mandatory deposit limits may change the way new customers gamble with platforms.
Some industry participants are concerned that these limits may discourage casual players while others think that stronger measures will help to build a stronger brand in the long run. Many operators have stated that customer choice should not be restricted and that responsible gambling measures should be voluntary.
In the same manner, the statutory levy has caused a problem regarding the financial impact on the smaller operators. It is possible that larger gambling companies will not have a problem with these costs, whereas smaller companies may not be able to meet them.
However, the supporters of the idea believe that a levy is a good way of ensuring that all operators contribute equally to efforts of preventing gambling harms. This has been welcomed by most of the responsible gambling organizations as it means that a sustainable and coordinated funding model will be in place to support long term planning and investment in harm reduction activities.
Conclusion
These changes are part of the wider attempt to put into effect the recommendations of the UK Government’s Gambling Act Review White Paper which was published in April 2023. The review highlighted the need for new gambling laws that would address issues of consumer protection and industry sustainability. The aim is to develop an industry that focuses on player protection without hampering the innovation and business development.