Measures relating to the land-based gambling sector

The Gambling Act review white paper published in April 2023 set out the government’s plans for modernising the regulation of gambling in Great Britain. This included a number of measures to adjust outdated regulatory restrictions applying to the land-based gambling sector. Restrictions on supply were originally viewed as an important protection in the 2005 Act, but in the light of the availability of remote gambling the characteristics of products and quality of monitoring have assumed greater importance. The proposals that we are seeking views on include:

Relaxation of casino rules: allowing large casinos to increase the number of their gaming machines to 80, allowing smaller casinos more than 20 machines, on a pro rata basis commensurate to their size and permitting betting in all casinos.

Machines in arcades and bingo halls: changing the 80/20 ratio governing higher to lower stake gaming machines to enable venues to better meet customer demands and save on energy costs.

Cashless payments on gaming machines: helping future-proof the industry by consulting on the player protections needed to remove the prohibition on the direct use of debit cards on gaming machines.

Introduction of a legal age limit of 18 for certain gaming machines: protecting children and young people by banning anyone under the age of 18 from playing low stake Category D slot machines that payout cash.

Licensing authority fees: ensuring that licensing authorities have the funding they need to carry out their licensing and enforcement duties for premises licences.

The purpose of this consultation is to ensure that the government is able to consider a range of views and evidence on this range of proposals before finalising the details of each policy.

The consultation will be open for 10 weeks, closing at 11:55pm on 4 October 2023. We encourage all those with views or evidence on the options above to make submissions via the survey link below by that point.

Following the closure of the consultation, the government will publish a formal response to set out our decision and reasoning before implementing the changes.