UK

A Gambling Commission consultation on where betting companies’ fines should go has drawn a sharp line between operators on one side and charitable organisations on other.

Between February-April 2026, the regulator consulted on whether regulatory settlements should be paid into the government’s Consolidated Fund. The Commission ultimately decided that money from enforcement actions should head to the fund, which is the UK government’s account with the Bank of England.

A total of 28 responses were given to the consultation. Gaming businesses and “a trade association”, presumably the Betting and Gaming Council (BGC), “agreed strongly” with the Commission’s proposal that operator financial penalties be paid into the fund.

As it stands, gambling firms’ financial penalties do not need to go into the fund. The Commission found that charity and third sector organisations, members of the public, and those affected by gambling harm were strongly in favour of this remaining case.

Instead, cha..

The UK Gambling Commission has released an official statement regarding Evolution’s recent £4.75m settlement, identifying “serious weaknesses” in the game supplier’s AML oversight between December 2023-November 2024.

A review of Evolution’s UK licence was launched by the Commission in December 2024, following reports that its branded games were found on a number of unlicensed gambling websites unlawfully targeting British consumers.

The review concluded earlier this July after an 18-month period, with a £4.75m settlement to be paid by Evolution being agreed upon by both sides.

In between the one-year window noted above, the UK regulator found “large volumes of visits” by UK-based players to the unlicensed casinos, which were supplied with games by Evolution through a business relationship.

The Commission established that Evolution’s internal assessment procedures that detect money laundering and terrorist financing risks were not effective enough to flag down the infringements occu..

Overall gambling participation in Great Britain dipped slightly in 2025, according to the latest Gambling Survey for Great Britain (GSGB).

The Gambling Commission’s publication revealed that 59% of adults gambled in the past 12 months, down marginally from 60% a year earlier.

Participation over the previous four weeks edged down from 48% to 47%, while online gambling remained unchanged at 38%.

Excluding National Lottery-only players, gambling participation slipped from 41% to 40% over the past year, and down from 28% to 27% over the previous four weeks.

The National Lottery remained the country’s most popular gambling product, with 31% of adults purchasing tickets, while participation in other charity lotteries held steady at 16%. Scratchcard participation fell slightly from 13% to 12%.

Problem gambling rate dips … slightly

One of the big talking points since the inaugural GSGB in 2023 has been the rate of problem gambling in the UK.

The survey showed a modest decline in the pr..

1xCare, the non-profit responsible gambling initiative established by the owner of the global operator brand 1xBet, has created a four-member independent Advisory Committee chaired by Simon Westbury to strengthen the oversight of its player protection programme.

Westbury will be joined by experts in gambling regulation, public policy, programme governance, and sports integrity, who will all contribute to 1xCare’s ambitious programme.

The team will oversee 1xCare’s four core pillars – EduCare, TechShield, Support and Well-Being, and its Research Hub – expanding the Committee’s remit to funding allocation, ethical standards and compliance, focusing on regulated markets.

Looking at the individual Committee members, Westbury will leverage his role as Chairperson to provide strategic leadership, act as the primary spokesperson and monitor the ethical standards and NGO compliance.

Quirino Mancini, Partner at corporate law firm WH Partners and former President of the International Masters..

A coroner’s court in the UK has found that gambling disorder played a part in the suicide of 40-year-old Gareth Evans in 2021. William Hill’s responsible gambling processes came under the microscope due to Evans’ history of gambling with William Hill online and in its shops. Evans’ death occurred in November 2021, while William Hill…

Shortly after calling for an increase in Category B Machine Gaming Duty, the Social Market Foundation (SMF) is now suggesting major reforms to the UK’s public health policies where problem gambling is given the same priority as alcohol-related harm, substance abuse and smoking cessation.

According to the think-thank, current problem gambling services are a post factum phenomenon in their majority across the UK. Therefore, the central government and local authorities as an extension to that central power must take a different approach, equipping first responders with questions on gambling in patient questionnaires as standard.

SMF’s proposal follows years-long debates in the UK where health experts and politicians have pondered whether gambling should be treated as a public health concern. So far, this rhetoric has failed to find solid ground, as only 2.7% of the adult population has been identified as problem gamblers.

Nevertheless, SMF believes that prevention is key to maintaining..

The Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) has told SBC News that it is keeping “all options” open as the Gambling Commission presses ahead with plans to implement the most stringent level of customer finance checks.

On Tuesday 7 July, the Commission announced that Financial Risk Assessments (FRAs) are now in the pipeline. FRAs are the second of two layers to finance risk checks, the most widely used and least stringent being Financial Vulnerability Checks (FVCs).

“We are considering the Commission’s latest announcement and all options available to us,” a BGC spokesperson told SBC News.

“No decisions have been taken at this stage.”

The measures have been colloquially called ‘affordability checks’ by the industry and gambling law reform advocates since the early days of the 2020-2023 review of the 2005 Gambling Act.

The White Paper on this review proposed financial risk checks when published in April 2023.

Over the following years, this concept has morphed into FVCs and FRAs – the for..