Is Gambling Legal in the UK? The 2026 Rules

Last updated: 31 October 2026

If you’re planning to take British customers, or you promote operators who do, “is it legal?” is the easy part of the question. The hard part is what the law lets you do once you’re in: which licence you need, which age limits apply to which product, which White Paper rules are already live and which are still announcements, and why Northern Ireland sits under a different law altogether.

The short answer: yes, gambling is legal in the UK, but only through licensed operators. In Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales) the Gambling Act 2005 governs betting, casinos, bingo, gaming machines, lotteries and online gambling, and any business that offers gambling to people in Great Britain, wherever it is based, needs a Gambling Commission licence. The minimum age is 18 for most gambling and 16 for society lotteries and football pools. Northern Ireland is regulated separately under its own 1985 Order.

This guide covers what the Act allows, who regulates what, the age rules by product, which 2023 White Paper measures are in force in October 2026, the duty rates and licence fees an operator pays, and how Northern Ireland differs. It’s written for operators entering the market and the affiliates who work with them.

What does the Gambling Act 2005 allow?

The Gambling Act 2005 doesn’t ban gambling and then carve out exceptions. It permits gambling and controls it through licensing. The government’s own review of the Act describes it as the law that “sets out how gambling in Great Britain is regulated”. It came fully into force in September 2007 and covers arcades, betting, bingo, casinos, gaming machines, society lotteries and remote gambling, including online gambling.

Every licence decision is tested against three licensing objectives in the Act:

1. Preventing gambling from being a source of crime or disorder, being associated with crime or disorder, or being used to support crime.
2. Ensuring that gambling is conducted in a fair and open way.
3. Protecting children and other vulnerable persons from being harmed or exploited by gambling.

In practice, that gives you this picture for Great Britain:

Two parts of the Act matter most if you run or promote an online brand. Under section 33, providing facilities for gambling in Great Britain without the right licence, permit or exemption is an offence. Under section 330, knowingly advertising unlawful gambling is an offence too, which is the provision that reaches affiliates.

Who controls gambling in the UK?

In Great Britain, the Gambling Commission does. It’s an independent public body sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, created by the 2005 Act. It issues operating licences and personal licences, writes the Licence Conditions and Codes of Practice (LCCP) that licensees must follow, and enforces them with fines and licence action. It also licenses the operator of the National Lottery.

Three other bodies share the job:

• Local licensing authorities (district, borough and unitary councils, and licensing boards in Scotland) issue premises licences for betting shops, casinos, bingo halls and adult gaming centres.
• The Financial Conduct Authority regulates financial spread betting, which sits outside the Gambling Act.
• HM Revenue and Customs collects the gambling duties, which are separate from Gambling Commission fees.

Northern Ireland has a different structure, covered in its own section below.

Is online gambling legal in the UK?

Yes, for licensed operators. The 2005 Act brought remote gambling into regulation from the start, and in 2014 it was amended so that, in the government’s words, it covers “all online gambling companies” offering gambling to customers in Great Britain, wherever they are based. That is the point of consumption model: the licence you need depends on where the customer is, not where your servers or your company sit.

So a Malta, Gibraltar, Isle of Man or Curaçao licence doesn’t let you take British customers. You need a Gambling Commission remote operating licence for each activity you offer, and the key people running the business need personal management licences. A hybrid sportsbook and casino needs both a betting and a casino licence. Our guide on whether offshore betting is legal explains how the same principle plays out in other markets, including the section 330 advertising offence.

Is bet365 legal in the UK?

Yes. bet365 is a British company and operates in Great Britain under Gambling Commission licences. The same test applies to any brand: if it holds a current Gambling Commission licence for the activity it offers, it’s legal to serve British customers. You can check any operator on the Commission’s public register before you sign a partnership or an affiliate deal; our gambling licence lookup guide shows how.

Can you use DraftKings or other US-only sportsbooks in the UK?

Only if the brand holds a Gambling Commission licence. A licence from a US state covers that state’s customers, not Great Britain’s. A brand that is licensed only in the US can’t lawfully offer its gambling product to people in Great Britain, and a British affiliate promoting it to UK users would be advertising unlawful gambling.

What is the legal gambling age in the UK?

18 for almost everything, with a short list of exceptions written into the Act. Under the Act (sections 47 and 49 among them) it is an offence to invite, cause or permit a child (under 16) or a young person (16 or 17) to gamble, except for:

• private or non-commercial gaming and betting;
• lotteries and football pools, which young people aged 16 and 17 can take part in;
• Category D gaming machines;
• equal chance gaming at premises with a prize gaming permit or a family entertainment centre licence, and prize gaming at fairs.

The Gambling Commission’s codes of practice set the lottery and football pools floor at 16: “tickets may only be sold to persons aged 16 or over”. The big exception to the exception is the National Lottery, which moved to 18 for all products in October 2021. Some pages and AI-generated answers still say the National Lottery is 16+. That has been out of date for five years.

For online operators, age checks come first. The remote social responsibility code requires you to verify a customer’s age before they can deposit, gamble or even play free-to-play versions of your games.

What the 2023 White Paper changed, and what’s actually in force

The April 2023 Gambling Act review White Paper was a list of proposals. Since then most of the online measures have been made law through regulations and licence conditions, but not all of them, and several pages ranking for this question still describe them as future plans. Here is the position in October 2026, based on the House of Commons Library’s Gambling regulation in Great Britain briefing (August 2026) and the rules themselves.

Two of these change how you build. The slot stake limits from SI 2025/215 are a licence condition on every remote casino licence, so your platform has to know each player’s age band and enforce the right cap per game cycle. And the promotions code says licensees must not “apply wagering requirements, which requires a customer to play through bonus funds, over a maximum of 10 times”, nor “include more than one type of gambling product” in an incentive. A combined sports and casino welcome offer is no longer allowed in Great Britain. Our guide to rollover and wagering requirements shows what a 10x ceiling does to bonus costs.

The financial risk point is where most summaries go wrong. Light-touch vulnerability checks are live, but the full deposit-threshold assessments aren’t yet. Build for them now, because the thresholds are published, but don’t tell partners they’re already mandatory. For the wider set of tools you must offer, such as deposit limits, time-outs, GAMSTOP and reality checks, see our guide to responsible gambling tools operators must offer.

Gambling taxes: what operators pay in 2026 and 2027

Players don’t pay the gambling tax; operators do, through duties on their profits. (HMRC lists National Lottery wins among income that isn’t taxed.) The rates changed sharply this year:

The current rates come from HMRC’s guide to betting and gaming duties, last updated 1 April 2026. HMRC’s guide doesn’t list the April 2027 remote betting rate yet, so that line relies on the Budget announcement as reported at the time; confirm it in the Finance Act before you budget.

Duty is charged on the operator’s profits, not on stakes. HMRC’s freeplays guidance also treats free plays as stakes for Remote Gaming Duty, so bonuses don’t shrink the base, as our guide to GGR and NGR explains. It also works through the 40% rate on a sample P&L and shows what it does to an affiliate’s revenue share.

What does a UK gambling licence cost?

Less than the tax. From 1 October 2026 the Gambling Commission charges the following, according to the government’s response on Gambling Commission fees from 1 October 2026:

• Remote casino: £8,185 to apply and £7,000 a year in the smallest band (gross gaming yield under £250,000).
• Remote general betting (real events): £6,535 to apply and £5,937 a year in the smallest band.
• First annual fee: charged at 75% of the annual fee.
• Personal management licence: £463 per person.

Fees rise by gross gaming yield band, so a large operator pays far more. For a small remote casino the regulator’s bill in year one is about £13,435 before personal licences, which is less than many offshore licences cost. The UK becomes expensive through the 40% duty, the levy and the compliance work. Our comparison of gambling licence costs in 15 jurisdictions puts these numbers side by side, and our UKGC licence guide covers the application itself.

How Northern Ireland is different

The Gambling Act 2005 applies to Great Britain only. Gambling is largely reserved to Westminster for England, Scotland and Wales (with some powers devolved to Scotland and Wales), while in Northern Ireland it is a transferred matter, regulated under the Betting, Gaming, Lotteries and Amusements (Northern Ireland) Order 1985. Policy sits with the Department for Communities, and enforcement of the new industry code rests with the courts and local councils.

The Betting, Gaming, Lotteries and Amusements (Amendment) Act (Northern Ireland) 2022 was the first phase of reform. It covers Sunday and Good Friday opening for betting offices, gaming machine stakes and prizes, a new offence of inviting a person under 18 to play a gaming machine, enforceable gambling contracts, wider cheating offences, and powers for an industry levy and a code of practice. The second phase, a new framework that would regulate online gambling in Northern Ireland, hasn’t been legislated.

What this means in practice:

• The Gambling Commission doesn’t regulate gambling in Northern Ireland, except the National Lottery, which runs UK-wide.
• Northern Ireland has no online gambling licence of its own. The 1985 Order predates the internet, which is exactly why a second phase of reform was planned.
• Advertising on broadcast and online channels is a reserved UK matter, so Northern Ireland can’t set its own rules there.
• GB-specific rules such as the online slot stake limits are Gambling Commission licence conditions. Before you assume a given rule does or doesn’t apply to Northern Ireland customers, check with UK counsel, because licensees’ terms and practices differ.

Is it illegal to play cards for money in a pub?

No, as long as it stays within the exempt gaming rules. Pubs and other alcohol-licensed premises can offer equal chance gaming, where every player has the same chance and nobody acts as the bank, such as poker, cribbage, dominoes or bingo. Local authority guidance sets the limits: £5 per person per game for poker, a £100 maximum prize, and £100 in total stakes per day on the premises. No participation fee can be charged, nothing can be taken from stakes or winnings, games can’t be linked to other premises, and under-18s can’t take part.

That matters to operators for one reason: anything beyond those limits, such as a rake, a fee or a linked league, turns it into gambling that needs a licence.

Can I run a raffle without a licence?

Often, yes. The Gambling Commission lists several lotteries that need no licence. An incidental lottery at a non-commercial event (a raffle at a school fair, for example) can run without a licence if it isn’t the main reason for the event and the money goes to good causes. A small society lottery needs only registration with the local licensing authority if proceeds stay under £20,000 for a single draw and under £250,000 in a calendar year. Above those limits you need a lottery operating licence from the Commission.

Paid-entry online “competitions” are where businesses get caught out. A draw with payment, a prize and chance is a lottery. To run it without a licence it generally has to be a genuine free draw with a free entry route, or a qualifying prize competition. The Commission publishes separate guidance on both.

What this means for operators and affiliates

If you’re an operator entering Great Britain:

1. Apply for a remote operating licence for every product you’ll offer, and personal management licences for your key people. Work with licensing consultants or gambling lawyers who have filed in the UK.
2. Model your P&L at 40% Remote Gaming Duty for casino, 15% betting duty now and 25% for online betting from April 2027, plus the 1.1% levy.
3. Configure the platform for age verification before deposit, age-banded slot stake limits, 10x maximum wagering and single-product bonuses.
4. Build the financial risk thresholds into your data now, even though full assessments aren’t yet in force.
5. Decide your Northern Ireland position with counsel rather than assuming the GB rulebook covers it.

If you’re an affiliate: promote only brands on the Gambling Commission register, rewrite any copy that still advertises high-rollover or combined sports and casino offers, and remember that section 330 makes advertising unlawful gambling an offence. Expect your operator partners to audit your copy against their own licence conditions.

If you’re comparing the UK against another regulated European market, our guide to gambling law in Spain covers the DGOJ model, where licences are only issued when a licensing call is open.

This guide is independent information, not legal or tax advice. Rules, rates and fees were checked against the Gambling Act 2005, Gambling Commission codes, UK statutory instruments, HMRC guidance, the government’s October 2026 fee schedule and the House of Commons Library briefing of August 2026, on 12 October 2026; the page was reviewed and updated on 31 October 2026. Confirm current requirements with the Gambling Commission or a qualified adviser before you act.