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(AsiaGameHub) –   Ian Angus, Policy Director for the UK’s Gambling Commission, is optimistic that the government’s efforts to grant lower-tier authorities greater authority over gambling licensing will be enshrined in law.

Speaking at this week’s Institute of Licensing Gambling Conference, the senior regulator addressed amendments to the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill that were passed by the House of Lords last month.

Should the bill then receive approval from the House of Commons, it will modify the 2005 Gambling Act to introduce a new resource for local councils: Gambling Impact Assessments (GIAs). 

Local authorities can use these assessments to measure the scale of gambling-related harm and the possible effect a new betting or gaming site might have on the local area, before using that data as justification to reject a licensing request. This would represent a major departure from the long-established ‘Aim to Permit’ regulation.

“The government has, naturally, committed to exploring ways to grant local authorities the ability to conduct gambling impact assessments when considering licensing decisions for the communities you serve,” Angus stated. 

“For our part, the Gambling Act review proposed new powers for the Commission to crack down on online illegal gambling. Both of these measures have been progressing through Parliament recently via separate pieces of legislation, and we anticipate they will both be passed into law.

“Once the bill has finished moving through Parliament and comes into force, the Commission will collaborate with DCMS to create guidance for licensing bodies and other interested parties on how to roll out the measures. This guidance will outline how to use solid evidence to support productive consultations with communities, operators and stakeholders before any GIA is put in place.”

The House of Lords’ approval of amendment 305 to the devolution bill last month was a major victory for local councils. Put simply, a great many local councillors – and a significant number of MPs as well – have grown frustrated with the gambling sector.

Dawn Butler, the Labour MP for London’s Brent East constituency, has been especially outspoken in demanding that the Aim to Permit mandate be reversed. Her campaign for local councils to be granted greater powers has won backing from other Labour figures, including longstanding gambling reform campaigner Alex Ballinger and Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham.

Last September, Prime Minister Kier Starmer took on board Butler’s concerns, stating that the government would “grant councils greater authority over where gambling outlets are located and how many can operate in an area”. The government is now following through on that pledge.

Commission outlines £26m funding plan to target black market activity

The UK gambling industry has been subject to intense scrutiny over recent years, spanning the 2020 to 2023 Gambling Act review, the subsequent rollout of the review’s recommendations, and last year’s debates over taxation of the sector.

Worries raised by figures such as Butler and Hannah Spencer, the newly elected Green Party MP for Manchester’s Gorton and Denton constituency, that the sector causes significant harm to low-income communities, are widely held across the UK.

When faced with demands for stricter regulation and higher taxes, the gambling industry has frequently highlighted the presence of an unlicensed black market. This argument has not always gone down well with MPs, many of whom have publicly queried how large the black market actually is.

To give bookmakers and casinos their due, however, this argument has been accepted by the Department for Media, Culture and Sport (DCMS) and the Gambling Commission. The DCMS has set up a dedicated task force focused on cracking down on the illegal gambling market, and is currently running a consultation on banning unlicensed betting companies from sponsoring sports teams.

For its part, the Commission will receive an extra £26m in funding over the coming three years, raised via the new gambling tax system that came into force on 1 April 2026. This entire £26m pot will be used exclusively to combat illegal gambling activity.

“We are delighted that the success of our work to tackle illegal gambling has been acknowledged by the Treasury in this manner, and this funding will absolutely enable us to expand the scope of our operations,” Angus commented.

“One less widely discussed measure that is nonetheless highly relevant for local authorities is that this funding will, for the first time, let us invest more specifically in tackling land-based illegal gambling. 

“We have always been somewhat limited by our available resources in this area, but this funding now means we are able to carry out far more work on land-based illegal gambling than we previously could. We will still need to collaborate closely with all of you and with local police forces, but this funding will let us deliver far more in this space.”

Commission anticipates gambling venue closures

Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, first unveiled the new gambling tax framework in the November Budget. As of 1 April 2026, Remote Gaming Duty has increased from 21% to 40%, while bingo duty has been scrapped entirely. From April 2027, General Betting Duty will rise from 15% to 25%, with exemptions for retail betting, spread betting, pool betting and horse racing wagers.

HM Treasury forecasts that the new tax system will bring in an extra £1bn per year by 2029/30, and intends to use this revenue to cover the cost of the recent removal of the two-child benefit cap. For the Gambling Commission, this tax change is the source of the extra £26m in funding outlined earlier.

For the gambling industry, however, these tax changes represent a significant financial burden. Shortly after the Autumn Budget was announced, major listed firms including Flutter Entertainment, Evoke and Entain confirmed they would be reducing their marketing budgets, a process that is already well advanced.

While retail betting is exempt from the tax rises, a knock-on impact is still expected for the high street. Retail betting has been seeing a steady decline over recent years, meaning that venue closures such as those confirmed by William Hill’s owner Evoke yesterday were already likely to happen regardless of the new tax rules.

Against the backdrop of these recent announcements, Angus stated that the Commission is “now anticipating that a number of gambling venues will close”. He added that the regulator’s operational returns data “will likely reflect these closures over the next 12 to 18 months”.

“2026 brings a shifting landscape, but change has always been a constant in the gambling sector to some degree,” he concluded. “At the Gambling Commission, we will keep working with our partners where we have aligned objectives. We remain dedicated to that collaborative approach, and no matter what else changes in the sector, that commitment will stay the same.”