This month marks the end of the UK’s requirement for operators to make voluntary contributions to gambling-harm-related research and treatment organisations. Instead, the new statutory levy will be ushered in on 6 April.
From that date, the Gambling Commission of Great Britain (GC) will invoice licensed operators based on gross-gambling-yield (GGY) data submitted via their regulatory returns. The first invoices will be issued on 1 September 2025, with payment due by 1 October 2025.
Commenting on the new system, Richard Bradley, solicitor for gambling-licensing firm Poppleston Allen, warned operators, “As the Gambling Commission will use the data provided in submitted quarterly regulatory returns to calculate the amount of the levy, operators may wish to consider the possible rise in potential payment amount – as some may now be required to pay more than they paid previously under the old RET recommended contribution requirement (the greater of 0.1% of GGY or £250).”
He added: “It is also worth noting that under the Act, payment of the levy is treated in the same way as operating licence annual fees, whereby the Gambling Commission shall revoke an operating licence for non-payment although it may accept late payment if the failure is due to an administrative error.”
Levy amounts range from 0.1% on GGY from pool betting, lottery, and gaming machines to 0.2% on land-based bingo and betting, 0.5% on non-remote intermediary betting and casino, and 1.1% on all remote gambling operations and software.
Minister for Gambling Baroness Twycross addressed the levy in a speech to the Betting and Gaming Council’s (BGC) Annual General Meeting on 27 February. In it, she highlighted the value of the levy in increasing investment in projects and services that aim to reduce gambling harm.
“The financial support that BGC members have given to research, prevention, and treatment services has enabled people in need access to crucial treatment services, and laid a foundation which the levy can build on. It is vital that funding for these services is maintained in the transition to the levy,” she said.
She also confirmed that the government had appointed the commissioning bodies for research, prevention, and treatment and said they were “working at pace” with the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities, NHS England, UK Research and Innovation, as well as with partners in Scotland and Wales, to create a viable system.
“It is crucial we put the right commissioning, accountability, and governance arrangements in place,” she said. “We want to build on the successes of the current system. But the levy will mean funding certainty. This will allow the expert bodies we have appointed to boost efforts to further understand, tackle, and treat gambling harm. We and the commissioning bodies will be led by the best evidence to get funding where it is needed most.”
Elsewhere, she referred to other regulatory interventions due to come into force in April, namely the changes to online-slot limits; a £5 limit will be in force on 9 April and a £2 limit for younger adults will be in force on 21 May.
Changes enabling casinos to offer up to 80 gaming machines, mirroring the rules for small 2005 Act casinos, are also set to come into force in a bid to level the playing field between land-based and online operators. “We believe the reforms we have introduced together with the Gambling Commission are proportionate and targeted interventions,” Twycross said.
Referring to the government’s renewed commitment to work towards economic growth, she said, “I believe that a growing gambling sector is compatible with creating an even safer one. I want a gambling sector in this country that is one we can be proud of – one that offers good jobs, interesting careers, brings social value, and is one that people enjoy while having vital protections in place.”
Reflecting on the speech for Politics Home this week, BGC chief executive Grainne Hurst welcomed the gambling minister’s warmth towards the industry and her acknowledgement that there is value in the sector “not just in tax receipts and jobs created, but as a leisure activity.”
However, Hurst also warned of “the misguided convictions of the anti-gambling lobby, currently embarked on a prohibitionist crusade which has infiltrated the minds of public health zealots and even some in our political world”. She also highlighted the ongoing battle against a growing black market.
“In the face of these threats, we remain clear,” she said. “Balanced, evidence-based regulations, including totally frictionless checks online, backed by a stable tax regime, are the best ways to defend the contribution and value Baroness Twycross was so right to highlight to the economy, to jobs, but also to people’s joy.”
We’ll wait for the GC’s invoices rollout in September before we comment on how “frictionless” the new levy has been.
