Britain’s Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has launched a consultation into the funding of the Gambling Commission.

The consultation has been informed by advice and data provided by the Commission, and seeks views on proposals for changes to Commission fees. 

It will run until 29 March 2026 and is the first Fees Review for the Gambling Commission since 2021.

In the consultation, the Government explains that since the last operating licence fees review in 2021, the Commission has increased investment in areas including disrupting the illegal gambling market, implementing reforms from the Gambling Act Review White Paper and developing its data capabilities. 

As a result of this investment and additional pressures such as inflation, the Commission has operated with successive annual budget deficits and has eroded its financial reserves. 

In FY 2024/25 the Commission utilised £3.1 million of its reserves, with a further £5 million forecast to be drawn down in FY 2025/26. 

At the end of FY 2025/26, the Commission will be close to its minimum reserve level of £4 million. Forecasted costs will increase in future years, and without a fee uplift in October, the Commission’s reserves are expected to be completely exhausted during FY 2026/27. 

The Commission plans to absorb some future inflationary pressures, but without an uplift it forecasts a deficit of £7 million in FY 2027/28, rising to £9.5 million in FY 2030/31.

The consultation includes three options for increases to levels at which operating licence fees are set, which will determine the extent to which the Commission is able to recover its costs and exercise its functions, and where its resources would be focused.

Increases to annual fees by one of three different options:

  • Option 1: 30%
  • Option 2: 20%
  • Option 3: 20% + 10% ringfenced for tackling illegal markets and protecting licensed operators’ revenue from criminal activity

Option 1 represents the Commission’s recommendations, and Options 2 and 3 are alternatives proposed by Government, with Option 3 being preferred by the Government.

The approximate value of the ‘ringfenced’ funds would be expected to be around £2.6 million, enabling a stronger focus on this work than would be possible under Option 1 (where around £1.1 million to £1.2 million would be available).

The full year effect of a 30 per cent increase in licence fees would be an additional £8.7 million in funding.

Under the maximum proposed option, the collective amount paid in licence fees by operators as a proportion of total industry gross gambling yield (GGY) would change from 0.21 per cent to 0.28 per cent.

Small operators, with GGY or equivalent of up to £15 million per licence type, account for 96 per cent of all types of licence. The proposed fees will result in an 8 per cent increase in income (£713,000) from this cohort, with the remaining 4 per cent of licence types with GGY above £15 million generating 92 per cent of the increase.

As an example, annual fees for the remote casino sector overall would more than double from £5.4 million to £12.2 million for the 30 per cent uplift, £12.5 million for the 20 per cent+10 per cent ringfenced uplift, and £11.5 million for the 20 per cent uplift.

The total amount of fees payable by remote general betting standard real event licensees would increase from £6.2 million to £6.5 million for the 30 per cent and 20 per cent+10 per cent options, and decrease to £6 million for the 20 per cent option.

Any changes will be brought into force by secondary legislation, with the intention for any adjustments to fee levels to come into effect from 1 October 2026.

There will also be a refined approach to calculating fees, with fees based on market share and weighted by regulatory risk for all products other than; General Betting Limited, External Lottery Manager, and Society Lotteries.

These would be subject to a flat percentage increase under each of the three options, based on current fee levels.

Operator application fees and first annual fees (charged at 75 per cent of annual fees) will be increased in line with changes to annual fees, depending on the option taken forward post-consultation.

The fees for personal licences, variation and change of corporate control applications will likewise be increased by 20 per cent or 30 per cent.

The current fees structure and fee setting approach has been in place since 2017, when the basis for the majority of licence fees moved to GGY to reflect the regulatory risk and corresponding volume of regulatory activity. 

In 2021, a fee increase was applied, with remote fees rising 55 per cent and non-remote fees by 15 per cent to reflect the increased regulatory burden posed by remote gambling since 2017.

“Although the 2021 fee changes went some way to reflecting market share and regulatory effort for remote licences, increases were generically applied across licence types and remote sector growth has continued to outpace non-remote gambling,” the Government says in the consultation. “Since 2021, the income that the Gambling Commission receives in respect of some types of licence has drifted away from the actual costs of regulating them, and the costs to the Commission of regulation now increasingly exceeds the level of the fee set in 2021. 

“These proposals would therefore reset the income required per type of licence so that it more closely reflects the cost to the Commission of carrying out regulatory activities associated with that kind of operating licence. In addition, harmonising fee category bandwidths where possible will improve consistency and enable growth.”

When Parliamentary time allows, the Government will remove the current requirement for the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport to give effect to fee changes by statutory instrument. 

Instead, the Commission would be able to consult on its own proposals for changes to fees and put changes into effect, subject to any approvals that may be included in the new process. 

This would be similar to other regulators such as Ofcom and the Financial Conduct Authority, who have the authority to set fees for the industries they regulate.

As of March 2025, the Commission licenses 2,179 operators and around 19,300 personal licence holders.