What we regulate

Who we regulate

We are responsible for licensing the following people and businesses providing gambling in Great Britain. We are also responsible for ensuring licence holders meet the relevant conditions of their licence.

Gambling businesses

We need to issue an operating licence to a gambling business for it to operate in Great Britain. The specific type of licence depends on the type of gambling business.

Examples of the types of business we license include:

• online businesses with gambling websites or apps which trade or advertise to British customers
• arcades and entertainment centres
• betting shops
• lotteries and society lotteries
• gambling software companies
• gaming machine companies
• bingo halls
• casinos.

External lottery managers

A society or local authority lottery can employ an external lottery manager (ELM) to run the lottery on their behalf. However, an ELM must apply for an operating licence.

There is detailed information about the types of licences and how to apply for licensees and businesses.

People working in the gambling industry

There are two types of licences we issue to individuals, known as personal licences.

Personal Management Licenses

For senior staff with responsibilities such as developing the corporate strategy or financial planning for a gambling business. You can apply for a Personal Management Licence online.

Personal Functional Licences

For people working in casinos in roles where they are directly involved in the game or handling money (such as dealers). You can apply for a Personal Functional Licence online.

The application process for both licences include background and criminality checks.

What we don't regulate

Customer redress

We are a regulator and not an ombudsman. This means we do not have the powers to resolve individual gambling complaints or help consumers get their money back.

Our role is to consider if a gambling business has breached their licence conditions. If they have, we will take regulatory action where appropriate.

We make a record of all complaints made against a gambling business. Where consumers share information with us that indicates a breach of our rules, that information will inform any regulatory action that we decide to take.

Customer complaints

We can't resolve complaints about gambling transactions. For example, problems with withdrawals or technical faults in a game.

If you have a complaint, you should complain directly to the gambling business and follow the complaints process.

All licensed gambling businesses must have procedures for handling customer complaints. This includes The National Lottery. Disputes are referred to an independent third party. We may review cases to see if the gambling business has met the obligations set out in its licence.

Issue premises licences

Premises licences are issued by licensing authorities. Licensing authorities are also responsible for issuing permits for low stakes gambling, such as gambling in pubs.

Give legal advice

We don’t give legal advice to help develop business models or ideas. But we do provide general information and advice about the Gambling Act 2005 (opens in new tab) and our approach.

Gambling we don't regulate

We regulate most types of gambling in Great Britain. However, a few types of gambling are managed by other regulators.

Small society lotteries

Small society lotteries are regulated by local authorities. They do not require a licence from us, but must be registered with the society's local authority. You can find out more about how to run a small society lottery.

Spread betting

Spread betting which can include things like betting on stocks and shares is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (opens in new tab).

All gambling websites

Our regulatory remit only allows us to regulate gambling websites which trade or advertise to customers in Great Britain. These gambling websites must have a Gambling Commission licence.

To check a company is licensed before you gamble online, look for a link to our public register on the gambling business’ website. Here you can see the type of activities the site is allowed to offer. You can find out more about how to check a site is licensed.

Additional information about our role and remit

This section of our website sets out more detailed information about our regulatory role and remit in relation to our wider functions as well as in relation to reports of death by suicide.

The Gambling Act

The Gambling Commission is the national regulator for commercial gambling in Great Britain. We are an arms-length body sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). We were set up under the Gambling Act 2005 (the Act).

The primary legislation governing gambling (excluding the National Lottery) is the Gambling Act 2005 (as amended) (the Act). The Act sets out the licensing, compliance and enforcement framework for gambling licensees who provide facilities for gambling to consumers in Great Britain, as well as for individuals working within the gambling industry.

The licensing objectives and what we take into account

In performing our role as regulator, we must aim to pursue, and wherever appropriate have regard to, the licensing objectives and to permit gambling in so far as we think it reasonably consistent with pursuit of the licensing objectives.

The licensing objectives, set out in the Act, are:

We regulate gambling in the interests of consumers and the wider public. In doing so we work with gambling licensees and other stakeholders and ensure that we take into account:

• the need to protect consumers and the wider public
• the need to maintain public confidence in the gambling industry and ourselves as regulator
• the importance of declaring and upholding proper standards of conduct and competence by licence holders.

Our principal functions

Some of our principal functions under the Act include:

a. Licensing gambling licensees by way of operating licences under the Act. Consideration of an application for an operating licence involves detailed analysis of the applicant’s suitability to carry on the licensed activities, including its integrity, competence and financial circumstances. Key to this is its systems for protecting vulnerable people and ability to meet the requirements of the Licence Conditions and Codes of Practice (LCCP).

b. The preparation, publication, and review, of a statement that sets out the principles which will govern the exercise of our functions, and, in particular, explains how such principles will assist us in meeting our licensing objectives. We publish a number of key documents that set out the responsibilities of those that hold operating or personal licences and our approach in regulating the gambling sector. The suite of documents includes, for example, Statement of Principles for Licensing and Regulation, Licensing, Compliance and Enforcement Policy Statement, Indicative Sanctions Guidance and Statement of Principles for Determining Financial Penalties.

c. Setting the rules with which gambling licensees must comply. The majority of these rules take the form of licence conditions and are set out in the LCCP. Through the LCCP, we set out important duties for gambling licensees, including duties in relation to the protection of vulnerable persons. For example, the LCCP includes duties in respect of advertising of gambling, customer interaction when indicators of harm are present, and the provision of facilities for customers to self-exclude from gambling. This document is kept under review and updated periodically.

d. Undertaking activities for the purpose of assessing compliance with the LCCP, compliance with requirements of the Act, or whether an offence has been committed under the Act.

e. Taking regulatory action against operating or personal licence holders by way of exercising our powers to start a licence review under section 116. Following which we may issue a formal warning, attach, remove or amend a licence condition, suspend or revoke a licence, and impose a financial penalty.

f. The power to investigate whether an offence has been committed under the Act, and to pursue criminal proceedings if this is the case.

We undertake activities for the purpose of assessing compliance with the LCCP and the Act and can begin regulatory action where we are concerned that there has been non-compliance. We may learn of potential non-compliance through corporate assessments of gambling licensees, compliance assessments, visits to licensed premises, notifications from licensing authorities who regulate premises at local level, complaints and other forms of information.

Death by suicide reporting

Very sadly, we may be made aware of a death by suicide. This could be through gambling licensees or other sources, such as bereaved families and friends or through agencies like the police or Coroner’s Office.

As of 1 April 2024, a new, specific requirement in the  LCCP  came into force that requires gambling licensees to inform us when they become aware that a person who has gambled with them has died by suicide, whether or not the death was associated with gambling. Our expectation was always that gambling businesses should notify us when they become aware that a person who had gambled with them has died by suicide. This enables us to assess whether regulatory intervention is required and helps to inform our ongoing consideration of policy. While some gambling businesses have notified us in this way in the past, it was not done consistently.

The purpose of collecting information from gambling licensees is for regulatory purposes, in two key areas:

• to inform our compliance and enforcement work
• to inform regulatory policy consideration (for example, on customer interaction, customer use of gambling management tools and knowledge of gambling across multiple gambling licensees).

It is not the purpose of the requirement to create a comprehensive or robust data set to establish the number of deaths by suicide and any information we make available about the levels of reporting under this requirement must not be used as a proxy for such data.

The requirement provides a further mechanism by which information must be notified to us and is in place to help us in considering matters in line with our current processes. Our focus must be on potential regulatory failings and establishing whether the gambling licensee has complied with the regulatory regime.

We can’t investigate or reach a conclusion as to the cause of a person’s death, in particular whether a customer’s gambling activities were a cause of death. Any such conclusion is for determination by the relevant authorities, for example the police or a Coroner following an inquest.

When a report is made, we consider the information available and, depending on the evidence, we may undertake further enquiries to determine whether there is sufficient evidence of regulatory failure in the gambling licensee’s processes. For example, this could be in relation to failing to identify customers who may be experiencing or are at risk of experiencing gambling harm and failing to act to prevent that harm. Where we identify failings, we consider what regulatory action may be appropriate.

Some reports will not lead to an investigation. This could be for a number of reasons. For example, gambling licensees are required to report the death by suicide of a person who has gambled with them, regardless of whether the death related to gambling, and it may be evident that the case does not relate to any potential regulatory failure of a gambling licensee. Other reports may be inaccurate or lack important information such as the person’s name, for example in relation to non-remote gambling customers where the name of the customer may not be known. There may be insufficient evidence of regulatory failure. We are unlikely to take regulatory action against gambling licensees who have already been subject to regulatory action for the same breach in the same period. Some cases reported to us may not be suitable for investigation due to the passage of time since the incident occurred and lack of available evidence.