How regulatory failures permit Britain's gambling sector to grow
Derek Webb
| Campaign for Fairer Gambling
While reforms move at a snail’s pace, gambling profits continue to grow. Thankfully, Andy Burnham is signaling change, says Derek Webb.
The long-awaited review of the Gambling Act was launched in December 2020, but the Tory government did not publish its White Paper until April 2023. Drawing the process out further, it was followed by consultations, including by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) on online slot stakes, and by the Gambling Commission on slot speed and machine standards.
The slot speed consultation was easy for the Commission. Despite research highlighting speed as a danger, the Commission stuck with the very fast 2.5 seconds per spin for online slots.
The machine standards consultation required a longer timeline to achieve little, with the results recently announced. There is minimal evidence that the trivial changes – such as displaying session times and showing more “safer gambling” messages – will result in meaningful harm reduction. The plan is to leave existing machines as they are, and change new ones from 2027, with enforcement starting in 2028.
The attitude of the Gambling Commission is also displayed through its staff. A recent Spectator article featured a quote from a Commission former official, stating: “The public health approach to gambling is simply a fig leaf for those who feel gambling is morally wrong.” However, harm is suffered by millions, including those filling up the 15 NHS gambling clinics.
Commenting on the potential Budget tax increase on the most harmful Category B slot machines, a gambling lobbyist claimed in another Spectator article that it is targeting a dying trade: “This is a policy justified by proliferation, aimed at a sector in retreat.”
But the money does not lie. By the end of March 2026, the year-on-year gross gambling revenue, the amount the public lost, rose from £16.73bn to £17.46bn. Whilst there have been betting shop closures since 2019, partly due to the maximum stake reduction on their fixed-odds betting terminal (FOBT) machines, the gross profit per shop has increased by 37 per cent since then.
The successful campaign to reduce the FOBT stakes to £2 resulted in an over 40 per cent decline in their gross gambling profits. By contrast, DCMS decided on an online £5 maximum stake per spin, with a £2 maximum for those aged 18 to 24, resulting in an increase of online slot profits by more than 14 per cent.
Part of the problem was the consultation itself. The range offered by DCMS had £2 per spin as the lowest option with the highest being a ridiculous £15 per spin. Land-based limits range from £1 to £5 but £1 wasn’t even on the table for online. DCMS claimed that “protection” measures online justified this, but there is no independent evidence they reduce harm overall.
But the growth is not just in online gambling. In 2008, B machine revenues were around £1.3bn, including roulette machines at up to £100 per spin, and now that has risen to £2.4bn. Some staff are retained on low or minimum wage (some venues have been fined for paying less than the minimum) to oversee machines on which a £2-per-spin gambler will lose an average of over ten times the minimum wage in an hour.
The B3 machines are disproportionately located in economically deprived areas. They accept anonymous cash-in, ticket-out payments with minimal play, putting them at high risk of being used as money-laundering vehicles for the proceeds of crime. Prime Minister Andy Burnham has the insight to name them alongside “dodgy businesses” and recognises that the 2005 Gambling Act “aim to permit” principle is not fit for purpose.
The Conservatives introduced the FOBT stake reduction in 2019, the need for online operators to be GB licensed in 2014, the first online gambling tax in 2015, and the first increase in the online casino tax in 2019. None of those measures were then described by credible pundits as prohibitionist.
Recently there has been intensive sector pushback against any increase in slot machine tax, from media outlets that oppose Labour such as The Spectator crying “prohibitionist” to those who benefit heavily from gambling advertising such as The Sun, with their “Save our Bets” campaign. Much of it has relied on a trade commissioned report by EY that has modelled job losses from tax increases, but which has not been made public. Hiding the evidence is never a good sign.
Bad regulators, bad behaviour and bad actors should not be tolerated in any sector, but especially in gambling.
