Tim Miller updates on phased rule implementation from the 2023 Gambling Act Review. (Image: Courtesy of Gambling Commission)

The Gambling Commission’s Executive Director of Research and Policy, Tim Miller, has provided an update on the Commission's commitments to the Gambling Act Review. 

In a report on the Gambling Commission’s website, Mr. Miller said that the Commission continues to make progress on implementing their commitments to the 2023 Review of the Gambling Act 2005.  

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Miller wrote: “We kicked off our programme of work with our Summer 2023 consultations and published our decisions on these topics in our consultation response in May 2024."

“We have developed a phased implementation approach to these new and amended requirements and codes because this enables both customers and operators to adapt to the changes gradually." Miller wrote.

The blog post by Mr. Miller provides an update on the new amended requirements as follows: 

At the end of this month, three new changes to the rule book come into effect: 

• For land-based operators, we have extended the requirement to conduct test purchasing as part of controls to prevent underage gambling to smaller operators, alongside an amended (good practice) code to implement Think 25 approaches to age verification. 
• For remote operators, the requirement to conduct light-touch financial vulnerability checks using publicly available data at the higher threshold of £500 per 30-day rolling period will come into force. 
• For the largest remote operators, we will commence the pilot of frictionless financial risk assessments in a way that does not affect consumers to test out the data sharing and frictionless nature of the checks and inform decisions on whether and how these assessments could be introduced in the future. 

Further Rule Changes to Come into Effect 

Mr. Miller said that in the coming months, further rule changes will come into effect to ensure fairness and transparency to customers, as well as to make gambling safer through a range of measures. 

This includes controls on remote game design that come into force in January and new requirements to allow consumers greater control over the type of direct marketing they receive, which will now be implemented in May 2025 to allow for the technical changes needed.  

He said, “Our work continues. We are considering the responses we have received from a wide range of stakeholders on our further set of consultations from Autumn 2023. We are meeting our data commitments, for example, through our Gambling Survey for Great Britain. And we will work with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport (DCMS) as they progress any policy work that may take place following the election."