White paper: Not gone, but already forgotten?
If you read recent headlines in the UK media, you’d be forgiven for thinking the government is under increasing pressure to launch a fresh review of gambling regulation.
This bizarre push appears to be founded on a collective amnesia over the fact the current government not just inherited, but supported, the 2023 white paper review and its proposals, which are only now coming into force.
It’s sometimes easy to forget how seminal the white paper really is, comprising 62 measures impacting all areas of the market. It was rightly described as a “once in a generation” reset for the sector, widely welcomed for balancing customer freedoms while increasing protections for the minority for whom gambling is problematic.
£100 million boost for RPT from statutory levy
Much has happened so far. From 6 April, the statutory levy came into place, aiming to generate £100 million ($134.1 million) a year for research, prevention and treatment (RPT) to tackle problem gambling and gambling-related harm.
Funding will be received by the Gambling Commission by 1 October to cover the 2025-26 levy period, while UK Research and Innovation, the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities and the NHS will commission programmes and services across RPT respectively.
This will nearly double funding from the last year of the voluntary levy, transforming the RPT landscape. For operators the crucial question will be how this entirely new system is governed. So far there has been little detail on how these various bodies will address issues including conflicts, eligibility, transparency as well as how they propose to build trust in this new system.
The sheer volume of money is likely to catch the eyes of newcomers looking for grants. When that happens, it is vital that long-standing, expert RPT providers are not excluded from commissioners’ priorities. Better Change has produced a report which creates food for thought on how to go about governing this new, cash-rich system.
What impact will slot stake limits have on GGY?
There has also been a major overhaul of maximum online slot stakes. On 9 April a new £5 stake limit was introduced for over-25s, then on 21 May the £2 max stake for under-25s came into force. This will eliminate the previous regime of open-ended staking, although it should be noted average stakes across the market are already less than £2 per spin.
The government’s own latest impact assessment predicted this measure would deliver a £181 million hit to operator GGY. We will know by autumn if that prediction proves correct. How customers respond will be a key question, not from playing down to the limits, but whether they exit the regulated market altogether. It would be safe to predict a shift, but only time will tell how much.
Changes to marketing regulation in the UK
On 1 May new direct marketing rules came into force under updated Gambling Commission licence conditions and codes of practice regulations. These reopen the choice architecture for operators, allowing customers to submit their preferences for products and channels for the purposes of direct marketing.
Hot on the heels of this will be a further set of marketing rules which restrict the number of plays required for redeeming bonuses and prevents inducements for different products being tied together. All of this will have an impact on advertising distribution.
Waiting in the wings are land-based casino reforms which address outdated machine allocation rules and allow all venues to provide a sportsbook. These are working their way through parliament now and will come into force in early summer.
These are just a handful of the changes coming into force throughout 2025, but there is a host more to come next year involving legislation, agreements between counterparties plus Gambling Commission measures.
Further gambling regulation would undermine the white paper
The government predicted the white paper’s impact on GGY for the online sector would be between £584m and £914m. It could be more, but that won’t become clear until all the measures are in place and a methodology of measurement is agreed and completed. NatCen has already been appointed as the main evaluator, but there is little transparency on how it will go about its work. What will be the base year? And how will it calculate displacement to the black market, which has to be considered regardless of how challenging it is to measure.
The reality is, the white paper is having a huge impact on the market and will do so for years to come. Calls for further restrictive measures before it is even fully implemented, much less come into force, would ignore and undermine five years of work striving for the political and policy balance the white paper promised.
‘Once in a generation’ should mean exactly that
And even if some have “banked” the white paper, this does not mean there is now a void of further work in the gambling space. The Advertising Standards Authority is already reviewing their less-than-two-year-old rules on “strong appeal” and the use of celebrities in gambling marketing.
The Information Commissioner’s Office has launched an investigation into cookies and tracking. The Gambling Commission has launched early reviews of fair and open terms while the treasury, not to be left out, has published a consultation on creating a single new online gambling tax.
The gambling space, despite being just a sliver of the overall UK economy, seems to command a disproportionate amount of attention. And it is this attention which roils the waters of policy and clouds the horizon for operators desperate for a sense of normality.
It would be wiser to take a breath once the white paper and its evaluation is completed, if only to give business some relief from the upheaval of a massive body of regulatory intervention. The need to enhance consumer protection goes on, but when it comes to regulations, once in a generation needs to mean just that. There is no need to review the Gambling Act again – policy is set and the industry should be allowed to deliver it.
Wes Himes is a Partner at Intrepid Partners and Senior Adviser at the Betting and Gaming Council (BGC).