Has the UK Gambling Industry Outgrown the Gambling Act 2005? | Analysis

The UK gambling industry has changed almost beyond recognition since the Gambling Act 2005 was introduced. Yet much of the industry's regulatory framework still rests on legislation passed before the iPhone was invented.

Now, a newly established Gambling Policy Commission is examining whether the Gambling Act 2005 remains fit for purpose. Or whether the UK needs to create an entirely new approach to gambling regulation.

The independent review will consider gambling-related harm, taxation, the relationship between betting and sport, emerging technologies, and the growing threat of unlicensed gambling operators.

A New Review of the Gambling Act 2005

The Gambling Policy Commission launched on Monday, 9 November. It aims to conduct an independent, evidence-based assessment of the UK's gambling legislation.

Professor Jagjit Chadha, an economist at the University of Cambridge, chairs the commission. It brings together further specialists in economics, law, public policy, health, and sport.

Alongside examining the effectiveness of the Gambling Act 2005 and assessing the impact of the 2023 Gambling White Paper, it will also examine:

• Recent tax reforms
• Gambling-related harm
• The economic relationship between gambling and sport

Most importantly, the commission will consider whether amendments to existing regulations are sufficient, or whether entirely new legislation is required.

The commission has issued a call for evidence and invites submissions until 12 February 2027. It expects to publish its findings and recommendations in 2028.

What Did the Gambling Act 2005 Change?

The Gambling Act 2005 significantly overhauled gambling regulation. It followed the 2001 Budd Report, which recommended modernising Britain's gambling laws and replacing a regulatory framework that was largely developed during the 1960s.

The Act established the Gambling Commission as the principal regulator and introduced three licensing objectives:

• Preventing gambling from becoming a source of crime or disorder.
• Ensuring gambling is conducted fairly and openly.
• Protecting children and other vulnerable people from gambling-related harm or exploitation.

Alongside this, it established a licensing system covering both traditional gambling premises and remote gambling operators.

Lawmakers recognised that internet gambling was becoming increasingly important. As such, they deliberately created a framework that could accommodate technological developments. This legislation also gave the Gambling Commission considerable flexibility. It would enable them to introduce new licence conditions without requiring Parliament to rewrite the entire Act.

However, the gambling industry that emerged over the following two decades developed in ways that would have been almost impossible to anticipate in 2005.

How Has Technology Transformed Gambling Since 2005?

Online bookmakers and casinos certainly existed when the Gambling Act 2005 was passed. However, customers generally accessed them through desktop computers. Many sports bettors still visited betting shops, and casino gambling remained strongly associated with physical venues.

Today, the landscape is hugely different. Customers can access thousands of gambling products through a smartphone. That’s arguably the most significant development. The introduction of mobile has removed many of the practical barriers that previously existed between customers and gambling products.

Of course, that’s not the only change. The products themselves have also become considerably more sophisticated.

Sports bettors can access hundreds of in-play markets and build complex multiple bets that weren't possible online before. Online casino customers can switch between slots, roulette, blackjack, and live dealer games within seconds.

Instant deposits and digital wallets have made transferring money into gambling accounts considerably easier. But beyond accessibility, technology has also transformed how operators interact with customers.

Nowadays, gambling platforms collect enormous amounts of information about their customers. This includes betting patterns, customer spending, and individual preferences, all of which can be used for identifying potentially harmful gambling behaviour. They can also use it to offer increasingly personalised marketing and promotions.

Has the Gulf Between Online Casino and Sports Betting Widened?

One of the most interesting developments since 2005 has been the changing balance between different forms of gambling.

Though sports betting and casino gaming are frequently offered by the same operators, they remain fundamentally different products. They have different economic characteristics, associated risks, and relationships with wider industries.

Could future legislation benefit from treating them even more distinctly?

Online Casino Gambling Is Driving Industry Growth

The latest Gambling Commission industry statistics illustrate just how significantly the gambling market has changed.

We’ve taken statistics from the first full financial year after 2014 licensing reforms. Earlier online gambling statistics covered only a portion of the market, making direct comparisons with 2005 unreliable. However, the contrast is still stark.

In 2015/16, online casinos generated approximately £2.36 billion in gross gambling yield (GGY). By 2025/26, that figure had reached £5.7 billion, representing nominal growth of around 140% in just ten years.

Online betting has grown much more slowly over the same period. It increased from approximately £1.74 billion to £2.4 billion, or around 38%.

The difference between casino and betting growth is striking, and the gap seems to keep widening.

Between April 2025 and March 2026, online casino GGY rose by £736 million in a single year, with about £642 million of that increase from online slots. By comparison, the entire British gambling industry's GGY rose by about £728 million over the same period.

In essence, online casino growth exceeded the net increase across the industry, with declines elsewhere offsetting some of those gains.

These statistics serve to demonstrate how substantially the industry's commercial centre of gravity has shifted towards online casino gambling.

Do Different Gambling Products Carry Different Risk?

Online slots allow customers to gamble repeatedly, with games lasting just seconds. Traditional sports bets generally involve waiting for an event to finish, although in-play betting and bet builders have increasingly blurred that distinction.

The Gambling Commission's 2025 Gambling Survey for Great Britain found that online slots players were at least five times as likely to record a Problem Gambling Severity Index score of eight or more than gamblers overall.

The Government has already recognised these differences. In its response to the remote gambling tax consultation, HM Treasury cited higher harm and lower operating costs as reasons to increase Remote Gaming Duty to 40% from April 2026.

So, if casino and sports betting warrant different tax treatment, should they also face different regulations?

Future reforms could introduce more product-specific protections, or even greater separation between casino and sports betting platforms. However, separating products could make it harder for operators to monitor customers' overall gambling behaviour.

The challenge is balancing the risks of individual products with protections that work across all forms of gambling.

How Has the Gambling Act Changed Since 2005?

Britain's gambling laws obviously haven’t remained unchanged for 21 years. The Gambling Act has already undergone significant amendments, and the Gambling Commission has introduced numerous additional requirements through its licensing powers.

One of the most important changes came through the Gambling (Licensing and Advertising) Act 2014.

This required gambling operators serving customers in Great Britain to hold a Gambling Commission licence, regardless of where the operator itself was based. Previously, the regulatory framework had primarily focused on operators based in Great Britain.

This change is particularly significant when considering the industry's extraordinary growth over the last decade. Only after these reforms did regulators gain a more complete picture of the British-facing online gambling market.

More recently, the Government conducted an extensive review of gambling regulation, culminating in the 2023 White Paper, High Stakes: Gambling Reform for the Digital Age.

This proposed more than 60 measures intended to modernise regulation and strengthen consumer protections. Several important changes have since been introduced:

• Online slots now have maximum stake limits of £5 per spin for adults aged 25 and over, and £2 for customers aged 18 to 24.
• The Gambling Commission introduced financial vulnerability checks and strengthened requirements relating to customer protection
• A statutory gambling levy now funds research, prevention and treatment of gambling-related harm.

These changes show that the Gambling Act 2005 can still accommodate significant regulatory reforms without needing replacement.

Many measures introduced after the 2023 White Paper are still relatively new, so their long-term effectiveness remains untested.

This raises an important question for the Gambling Policy Commission: what could an entirely new Gambling Act achieve that further amendments to existing legislation cannot?

Unless the commission identifies fundamental weaknesses in the current framework, continued reform might actually be more practical than starting again.

Does the UK Really Need a New Gambling Act?

The gambling industry has changed enormously since 2005.

Online casino revenue has more than doubled over the last decade, smartphones have transformed access to gambling, and new products continue to challenge traditional distinctions between gambling activities.

The nature of gambling itself has changed, along with the products generating the industry's revenue.

The Gambling Act 2005 was deliberately designed to accommodate change. Successive reforms have proven that it can still support significant regulatory intervention.

The Gambling Policy Commission's challenge will be determining whether the existing legislation has genuinely reached its limits, or whether more targeted reforms would provide a better solution.

For UK bettors, the outcome could eventually influence everything from the products they can access to the protections they receive. So yes, the industry has undoubtedly outgrown the world of 2005. Whether it has outgrown the Gambling Act itself remains an open question, perhaps for the Gambling Policy Commission to answer.