Bingo Association AGM - Sarah Gardner speech
08 May 2026
This speech was delivered by acting chief executive Sarah Gardner at the Bingo Association AGM on 7 May 2026.
Please note: This is the speech as drafted and may slightly differ from the delivered version.
Hello everyone, it’s great to be here at the Bingo Association Annual General Meeting to give you an update from the Gambling Commission. I’m Sarah Gardner, Acting Chief Executive at the Gambling Commission – ‘Acting’ from my more usual role of Deputy Chief Exec.
It was really interesting to listen to Matthew from Department for Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) just now and for my own part today, I will also be looking at what the Bingo sector is looking like today and what we at the Commission will be doing over the year ahead that impacts on you, your businesses and people who spend their time and money with you. And given, what can at times feel like, the quite challenging debate around gambling, both within and around the sector at present, I also want to spend some time championing the value we all get from working together. From turning the volume of debate down at times and focussing on what can be gained through collaboration. An approach that I think has worked well for the Commission and Bingo in recent years. And that of course, brings me to Miles.
I’m really pleased to be here for what I can’t believe is Miles’ last AGM as Chief Exec of the Bingo Association. That said, that disbelief is tempered when I see my own grey hairs starting to advance. In fact, I’ve been around the Commission for so long that I remember when Miles was appointed as CEO of the Bingo Association. I recall thinking then that he brought a breath of fresh air and new perspectives to some long running debates. His contributions have remained hugely valuable throughout his tenure and I would like to thank him for that.
So, Miles has been at the Bingo Association and around the sector for a long time and throughout that time he has always been a strong advocate for his members. I remember back as the pandemic first struck and the lockdowns began to bite, Miles was tireless in representing the sector with Government and the Commission. He brought energy and ideas and a desire to roll up his sleeves and work with others on solutions. I think that approach defines Miles and I know it has been one that we at the Commission have always appreciated. He has always sought to work with others to come up with solutions rather than against them. This last 12 months has again proved this to be the case as I will briefly come on to.
So today, I wanted to put on record the thanks of myself and the Gambling Commission for Miles’ contribution over the years: how he has worked with us in a spirit of collaboration and for the tireless efforts he has made in representing the bingo sector. Thank you Miles and good luck to you in what comes next.
And because in gambling you can never stand still, I also want to say that we’re looking forward to working with Nicole as incoming Chief Exec as well. And continuing to build that collaborative relationship as we go forwards.
Sometimes in the past we have been told that as the regulator, we shouldn’t work in collaboration with those we regulate. That of course is not a view the Commission has ever taken. We know what we can achieve through our powers, but we know that we can achieve a whole lot more for our objectives by working with those in industry who are willing to work with us. And we can often do it a whole lot quicker this way too. So as long as operators are committed to compliance at the first opportunity, we can and we will work with you, all to the benefit of consumers who get safer, fairer and crime free gambling as a result.
And in part down to Miles and his leadership, but also thanks to many of you in this room today, the bingo sector and the Bingo Association have been a great example of this in recent years. Even before we launched last year’s Gaming Machines consultation we had excellent engagement from the sector and some really useful contributions during the pre-consultation phase. This carried on during the consultation as well. I’ll update you further on where we are on that work in a minute or two, but this is not the only example over the last year where the Bingo Association has proved your commitment to working with us in a constructive way.
Strengthening the evidence base around gambling is vital if we are to make the right calls when we have questions around regulation to answer. And as Government’s advisors on gambling regulation, it’s even more important that we have the right data. That said we know changes to statistics, especially at times of uncertainty, can be alarming. And so we’ve always looked to be as open and as forthcoming as we can be with industry when it came to the development and then the rollout of the Gambling Survey for Great Britain (GSGB). Sadly, some took the view that it was better to throw mud or indulge in conspiracy theories than work with us on strengthening the evidence base.
But the Bingo Association is different. When you found differences in the numbers when it came to how many people you saw participating in bingo, compared to what we were seeing in the GSGB, you quite rightly raised concerns with us. And when we offered to work with you on finding out more, you worked with us, in partnership to get to the bottom of the differences.
We were able to work together, develop a new question to add to the survey that looked specifically at where people were playing bingo. And over the last three quarters of data, we’ve found that with the extra insight you helped us gain, we’re actually much closer together than was thought. The findings illustrate the variety of places where people play bingo. In 2024 the GSGB stated 3.3 per cent of adults aged 18 and over had played bingo. Crucially though, with the data from the new question, we have found the GSGB estimates of those people playing bingo in traditional bingo clubs like the ones many of you run - 1.2 per cent - is much more closely aligned with the Bingo Association’s own estimates calculated from admissions data into those premises, which is 1 per cent.
We plan to continue working with you as we gain a larger sample size, but we have already decided to retain the new question we developed with you. And this is great because the GSGB, gives us a wealth of information away from the participation data we got before. For example, it gives us insight, sector by sector for why people gamble. The social nature of bingo is clearly identified as being a significant draw for in person bingo – something that whilst may make sense to everyone in this room – is now part of our official statistics. Working together, rather than retreating to the entrenchments, means we can build a shared understanding instead of creating mistrust. We can look to make progress instead of holding each other back.
And where are we looking to progress from? Well, our data from our Industry Statistics for 2024/25 breaks down the Gross Gambling Yield (GGY) for the Bingo sector, recognising that the sector comprises of a mix of business models ranging from more traditional bingo clubs, ‘high street bingo premises and bingo provided at venues such as holiday parks. It shows:
That non-remote made: £650m
Remote: £166m
Total Bingo GGY was £816m, approximately 5 per cent of whole industry GGY of £16.8bn.
And it is also worth noting, in 2024/25, two thirds of non-remote Bingo GGY was from gaming machines in venues and 35 per cent from Bingo games.
And this takes us back to our Gaming Machines consultation. At the end of January, we announced the first change we’re making as a result of the consultation. This was in relation to the existing requirement for all non-remote operators to ensure machines available for consumer use are compliant. Building on this, from 29 July 2026 operators must also immediately remove machines if the Commission informs them that the manufacture, supply, installation, adaption, maintenance or repair of the machine was not carried out in reliance on a gaming machine technical operating licence. They must do the same if machines do not comply with the gaming machine technical standards.
We expect this change will streamline processes and ensure non-compliant machines are swiftly removed from premises - a benefit to consumers and operators. We are targeting getting the rest of the consultation response out this Summer, so not too long to wait now.
Beyond this, we published our Business Plan last month and it highlighted a few areas that you will want to be aware of. Being in the last year of our Corporate Strategy too it does, as you might expect, cover some familiar themes. Implementation of the Gambling Act Review features as we’ve already discussed as a priority and we will look to further improve our data maturity and evidence base. Continuing to both take decisive action and to proactively engage with operators like you, to ensure compliance with our rules is of course another priority. And investment in our work to tackle illegal gambling is another important area of work. As part of that we welcome the £26 million in new funding from Government for our work in this space. That money covers the next three years and one area it will allow us to invest in, arguably for the first time in a serious way, is addressing land-based illegal gambling. I know that is something this sector takes extremely seriously – the Commission does too. But for too long we have been held back by our resources. Going forwards we think this new funding gives us the chance to do more in this space. It won’t mean we can solve issues alone, we still need to work with other agencies like the Police, but there will be more we will now be able to do.
We’ll be able to talk more about our plans for the year ahead once Government announces their decision on our fees for the next few years as well, following their recent consultation. But for now, I think I will wrap it up there. At the Commission I and my team value the way the bingo sector and the Bingo Association work with us. We want to keep that going and we look forward to continuing to work with all of you through the year ahead.
Thank you and I’ll happily take any questions you may have.
Last updated: 8 May 2026
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