UK ministers on Thursday outlined the biggest shake-up of the betting industry in almost 20 years, announcing major curbs on online platforms in a push to reduce problem gambling.
The gambling white paper set out plans to introduce a statutory levy on betting companies to fund public health initiatives, impose a stake limit of between £2 and £4 on online casino games for young adults and implement tighter financial affordability checks on problem gamblers.
The proposals, eagerly awaited by safer gambling campaigners since the review of legislation began in December 2020, will be subject to a round of consultations. But gambling minister Stuart Andrew said the changes would be “in place” by the summer of 2024.
The reforms will trim gross gaming yields across the entire sector, which totalled almost £10bn in the year to March 2022, by 3-8 per cent, according to official estimates. Online gambling revenues will be cut by 8-14 per cent.
Culture secretary Lucy Frazer told MPs that the updates to the 2005 Gambling Act, enshrined in law before the boom in online gambling, would bring “pre-smartphone regulations into the present day”.
“We need a new approach that recognises a flutter is one thing. Unchecked addiction is another,” she said. The consultations will be led by the Gambling Commission, the regulator, and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
Some of the curbs do not go as far as campaigners anticipated. Ministers on Thursday said they would consult on stake limits for gamblers aged 18 to 25, the group most likely to fall victim to gambling addiction. Such limits could restrict bets to either £2 or £4, or based on individual risk.
Older gamblers could face stake limits of up to £15, above the self-imposed caps of several operators. Gambling group Flutter, which owns Paddy Power and SkyBet, already imposes a blanket £10 limit. An earlier version of the white paper, which was close to being launched by Boris Johnson’s government last summer, proposed a cap of between £2 and £5.
The white paper also unveiled financial affordability checks, which estimates suggest could affect up to 20 per cent of customers. Accounts with net losses of £125 a month or £500 a year will face light touch checks, which will use open source data such as county court judgments or previously declared bankruptcies.
High-spending accounts, which record net losses of £1,000 a day or £2,000 within 90 days, will be subject to enhanced checks by credit reference agencies. The checks are expected to affect about 3 per cent of customer accounts and the threshold will be lower for younger gamblers.
Carolyn Harris, a Labour MP and chair of the all-party parliamentary group on gambling-related harms, called for the proposals to be put in place immediately, without further consultations. “Let’s stop lining the pockets of an industry who’ve had it their own way for far too long,” she said.
The UK’s four biggest online operators, including Flutter and Bet365, already voluntarily contribute 1 per cent of revenues to gambling harms initiatives. But the statutory levy, which could raise more than £100mn annually, will make the contribution mandatory as well as changing who decides how funds are distributed, enabling the NHS to benefit from the money.
Andrew, the gambling minister, would not commit to a specific level for the levy. A consultation over summer will determine how it is applied to smaller and land-based operators, which will also be able to increase the number of slot machines in their casinos from 20 to 80.
According to the Gambling Commission, about 0.3 per cent of British adults were problem gamblers at the end of 2021, but a survey by polling company YouGov put the figure at 2.8 per cent, or almost 1.4mn people.
The government said it would also create an industry ombudsman to settle disputes when companies failed to offer consumer protections.
The reforms did not outline any further restrictions on betting advertising, after the Premier League this month said it would phase out front-of-shirt sponsorship — a decision criticised by former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith as “not [going] far enough”.
As the gambling industry has ballooned in recent years, it has poured money into lobbying efforts. Dozens of Tory and Labour MPs took about £200,000 in hospitality and gifts from betting companies between 2021, according to the register of MPs’ financial interests.
Conservative backbencher Scott Benton was this month suspended from the party after he was secretly recorded offering to give reporters from The Times, posing as gambling industry representatives, an advance copy of the white paper and ask questions on their behalf in parliament.
Liz Ritchie, co-founder of the charity Gambling with Lives, said the reforms showed campaigners had “won the argument against a powerful gambling lobby” but that there was further to go.
“After a long fight we’ve won concessions on some of the key areas but so much more needs to happen to reduce the horrendous harm caused by one of the most loosely regulated gambling industries in the world,” she said.
Additional reporting by Federica Cocco
