Business plan and budget 2026 to 2027
The milestones we plan to complete within the business plan 2026 to 2027.
Foreword
For the Gambling Commission, 2026 to 2027 represents the third and final year of our 3-year Corporate Strategy: Gambling Regulation in a Digital Age. As such this year’s Business Plan builds on the successes achieved through 2025 to 2026 and continues to focus on improving gambling regulation for all. It should also be stated that this Business Plan is only the start: we intend to build on this and publish a more detailed plan as soon as we can, once the results of the Government consultation on our Fees are published.
The Fees consultation is just one factor that means 2026 to 2027 will be a year of change, challenge and opportunity for the Commission against a backdrop of a gambling sector that is experiencing changes as well. The changes include the 2025 Budget gambling tax increases announced by the Government and continued implementation of the 2023 Gambling White Paper. As already referred to, in January 2026 our sponsoring Department, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), launched a consultation on the Commission’s Fees (opens in new tab) – the first since 2021.
Notwithstanding those changes and the associated uncertainties, our ambition remains high. The licensed gambling market in Great Britain is one of the most respected in the world. That is, in no small part, due to the Commission’s unwavering focus on making gambling safer, fairer and crime free. That focus remains, as does our commitment to collaborate with everyone who shares those goals and our commitment to doing the right thing for consumers and the wider market while allowing the industry space to innovate and grow in a compliant way. We seek compliance at the earliest opportunity and we believe we can achieve that through working with industry and like-minded stakeholders wherever we can. Everything we do in 2026 to 2027 will be rooted in these commitments and in the delivery of the priorities, as set out in our Corporate Strategy.
The last year was one of significant delivery by the Commission. We achieved more important milestones in the implementation of the Gambling Act Review. Our work to regulate the National Lottery and the implementation of the Fourth Licence saw 2 rounds of successful upgrades to the digital and retail infrastructure of the National Lottery by the operator Allwyn Entertainment Limited (Allwyn), with regulatory oversight from the Commission. We continued to drive up standards in the licensed market through proactive engagement activity on the one hand, and compliance and enforcement activity on the other. We have also further developed our approach to tackling the illegal market which saw the number of URLs of illegal sites referred to search engines rise from just under 27,000 at the start of the year to over 117,000 at the end of 2025.
Looking to the year ahead, our work to combat illegal gambling will be an important focus as we look to make an even bigger impact. The commitment made by the Government of £26 million Exchequer funding over the next 3 years, is a significant vote of confidence and strong endorsement of the work the Commission has done to date in this area. It will enable us to develop our strategic approach to preventing unlicensed operators from operating at scale, undermining the licensed British market and presenting significant risks to the consumers who gamble with unlicensed operators and so without the protections they enjoy in the licensed market. We will also use this funding to further augment our existing operational activities to disrupt and deter those who try to operate without a licence. But we also know that we cannot address the risks from the illegal market on our own. To this end, our work with DCMS, the Government’s Illegal Gambling Taskforce, industry and stakeholders in other sectors, such as finance and social media, will continue to be prioritised. We hope to see greater powers granted to us to tackle illegal websites through ongoing Government legislation.
The Statutory Levy (Levy) regime is transforming how research of gambling and the prevention and treatment of gambling harms will be funded. DCMS are responsible for the policy and decision making in relation to the Levy, with the Commission’s role being to collect the Levy, and make payments to the commissioning bodies, under DCMS' direction. The Commission is also a recipient of funding from the Levy, as part of the 20 percent assigned to research, alongside UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). We are using this to further strengthen our delivery of a robust evidence base, prioritising the themes identified in our Evidence Roadmaps.
We have worked hard this year alongside teams within DCMS and the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) to identify ways to reduce the administrative burden on those we regulate. We have set out a number of proposals for burden reduction through this work without reducing protection for consumers. We have identified potential opportunities to improve guidance to licensees, further digitise licensee services and reduce data reporting requirements for licensees. Throughout future years this area remains important to us as we work to implement existing proposals, identify new proposals and track the impacts resulting from our changes.
We remain committed to delivering against our corporate strategy in all of these areas. Once the result of the Fees consultation is known we will publish a more detailed business plan in due course which will explain more precisely how we will be able to invest in each of these areas of strategic focus and the progress we think we can make.
Given the enormous progress made to implement the measures set out in the Gambling Act Review White Paper and this year’s commitments, we anticipate that we are approaching the end of our delivery of those ambitious plans. However, consistent with our statutory duties, we will continue to advise DCMS on potential changes to legislation and respond where needed to those changes in legislation. Alongside DCMS, we will also continue our efforts to evaluate the impact the White Paper measures are having.
The Commission will continue to work in support of our legal responsibilities for the National Lottery as the Fourth Licence moves out of the implementation phase. Making sure the National Lottery is run with due propriety, that the interests of all players are protected and that returns to Good Causes are maximised will continue to guide our work in this space.
As well as the National Lottery, at the heart of our plans remain our core duties under the Gambling Act (2005). We will monitor that licensees treat consumers fairly and openly and ensure compliance at the earliest opportunity and we will continue to permit gambling where it is consistent with the Licensing Objectives. And where resources meet our ambition, we will also look to make space to support and encourage consumer focussed innovation.
Next pageOur planned activity
Last updated: 21 April 2026
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