Key Points
- The review process was initiated on 9 November 2026 and will continue to accept written submissions until 12 February 2027.
- Although the commission acknowledges that Derek Webb was behind the initial funding for its functioning, there are concerns about the independence and mandate of the committee as well as the lack of gambling operators among the members.
- The changes that will happen to tax policies in April 2027 and poor estimates of black market size are just some of the problems the commission will have to deal with.
Lack of Government Oversight, Lack of Industry Members
The Gambling Policy Commission has just launched the first ever comprehensive review of the laws regulating gambling in Britain which has not been directly commissioned by the government since 2001. Moreover, this commission does not have any representatives from the gambling industry. The commission’s head is economist Jagjit Chadha from Cambridge, who announced the creation of this body on 9 November 2026. James Reade, the University of Reading Professor of Economics, has been appointed the commission’s chief economist.
The process of collecting submissions will go on until 12 February 2027, and a comprehensive report is expected to be delivered in 2028. All submissions should be made in the form of PDF documents and will be published. Everyone can take part in it – consumers, gambling operators, researchers, support groups, and even sports teams. Chadha hopes for submissions from “people and groups with real-life experience, evidence, and expertise from all sides of the debate”.
From the Budd Review to a Whole New Commission
The last comprehensive review of the country’s gambling legislation was conducted under the leadership of Sir Alan Budd way back in 2001. Following the report prepared by Sir Alan Budd, 176 recommendations have been forwarded and almost all of them have been included in the Gambling Act 2005 that governs commercial gambling activities in Great Britain. Up to now, the gambling legislation of Northern Ireland is still different from the rest of the regions of the country.
Last year in December, Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden really opened up the debate about whether the UK’s gambling laws need an overhaul. He said the Gambling Act was simply out of date, “an analogue law in a digital world”. He said as much in 2020, but only finally published a white paper in 2023, and a few of its proposed changes have already come into effect.
For example, online slots with a stake of £5 or more were capped at that level from 9 April 2025, although that only affects over 25s. And if you’re 18 to 24 years old, you’re now limited to staking £2. That came in on 21 May 2025.
The GPC reckon that successive governments have made loads of changes to individual rules over the years, without ever stopping to take a proper look at the laws themselves. The Betting and Gaming Council just don’t agree, saying that the new rules need more time to bed in before they’re properly evaluated.
Eight Topics to Be Covered by the Panel, Including Prediction Markets and Racing Levies
GPC has outlined eight topics to be covered by its review. They involve prediction markets, artificial intelligence, cryptocurrency, and gambling/financial products. The issue to be reviewed by the panel concerns whether civil liability may be imposed due to harm caused by gambling.
The evidence of such harm is commonly challenged, the commission states. It causes problems in determining who should cover the cost of treatment and who should be responsible for the damage done.
Another topic to be discussed concerns the economic impact of gambling. The commission cites government estimates saying the sector generates about £5 billion of gross value added in 2024 and creates about 75,000 jobs in 2025. For the 2025/26 financial year, HM Revenue & Customs collected £3.9 billion in betting and gaming duties.
The statutory levy, which is used to finance gambling research, prevention, and treatment, is another topic to be reviewed by the panel.
Recent tax changes have made this area especially important. The Remote Gaming Duty was raised from 21% to 40% starting on 1 April 2026.
From 1 April 2027, all remote bets will face a 25% duty except for remote bets on UK horseracing that will be taxed according to the existing rules. The commission says that this is connected to the 10% Horserace Betting Levy.
Starting from 1 April 2027, the Machine Games Duty will be increased from 20% to 25%. The change is applicable to machines having a stake higher than £1 or a prize higher than £100.
The tax exemption of horseracing is connected to the GPC’s review of the proposed Sports Betting Levy that is intended to replace part of the General Betting Duty.
Two Very Different Estimates of Britain’s Black Market For Gambling
There’s still no agreement on how big Britain’s black market for gambling actually is. A Gambling Commission survey found that 2.5% of online gamblers had used an illicit gambling site in the last four weeks. Another 1.5% had used one earlier in the year, so that brings the 12-month total to a reported 4%.
But before you take those findings at face value, you should take a closer look at the survey’s methodology.
It had a pretty big sample size, 14,257 people, with 3,569 of them being online gamblers in the last year. The Gambling Commission came up with a new index based on seven things people said they’d done. About 128 people met its rules.
But here’s the thing, the Gambling Commission didn’t actually check to see if those 128 people really were using black market operators. Also, another 4.6% of respondents seemed to be up to no good, but they didn’t provide enough evidence to fit the bill.
Ismail Vali, the president of Gambling Compliance International, is questioning how people can interpret the numbers.
“That does not mean you can measure the revenue from the black market by calculating the percentage of those who admit to their involvement,” he says. “It’s another case entirely when it comes to the revenue being earned by others.”
He fears that a rather small number of heavy gamblers and high rollers may be contributing the lion’s share to the revenue stream of the black market. The review takes a closer look at the way the payment processors, search engines, social networks, and application markets address these issues.
The analysis of the web traffic gives an alternative view of the black market. According to IFHA traffic analysis, there are 301 betting sites, of which 227 are operating unlicensed.
From January to July 2026, for every hundred visitors to a licensed betting site, there were 19.4 unlicensed ones. The share of unlicensed sites reached 26.6 in 2025 and 10 in late 2021.
Questions Raised Over Derek Webb’s Funding and The Commission’s Members
In accordance with the GPC’s website, the funding for its kick-start was provided by Derek Webb, the ex-professional poker player and the founder of the Campaign for Fairer Gambling. It further states that the commissioners are independent thinkers.
Furthermore, on its website, it is stated that the group has nothing to do with the government, the parties, and the gambling industry. It operates independently.
However, Webb’s funding is another thing. The amount and conditions of this donation are not mentioned on the GPC’s website.
It has already provoked some doubts. According to Dan Waugh, who works as a consultant at Regulus Partners, the entire deal is “pretty weird” and he wonders whether one funder would require ten lobbying organisations.
Moreover, it was told to NEXT.io by the Gambling Commission that the GPC is not a statutory body and has no relation to it.
The panel has ten members with backgrounds in economics, law, sport and the media. There’s Peter Kellner, the former head of YouGov, and Sir Anton Muscatelli, the president of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Football journalist Philippe Auclair and Plumpton Racecourse director Tom Savill are also on the panel.
Dr James Noyes, from the Social Market Foundation, a think tank, is another member. In October 2024, he co-authored a paper that suggested Remote Gaming Duty should go up from 21% to 42%.
What Next?
Evidence collection is at an early stage, thus, there are no changes for both gambling operators and users. The Gambling Commission regulates gambling under the Gambling Act 2005. According to the trade press, the Commission does not have plans to replace it.
According to the Guardian, the GPC aims to complete the review before the next general election.
Written evidence submission will be closed by February 2027. The commission will continue conducting the research during 2027 and will publish its findings in 2028. Relevant organisations and individuals are invited to submit their evidence up to February 2027.
Expert Analysis: Funding is Declared, but Many Questions Are Raised
Now, when Derek Webb has officially been announced as the seed funder, we believe that the funding controversy has become clearer. The question is whether a reform campaigner can fund an independent review trusted by gambling operators. Public release of the contribution size and terms will help the GPC to address some of its critics.
However, the illegal market data controversy is more worrying for us than the funding issue. Neither measure shows the actual revenues that illegal operators receive. Even if the percentage is rather small, it can actually mean considerable expenditure by users; also, a high number of visitors on the website may mean that gamblers place very small bets. Using either figure will make the commission vulnerable.
We believe that the most serious problem is the lack of gambling operators’ representatives on the panel. The researchers and the commentators can discuss taxation of gambling and related harms from an academic point of view, but it will be harder for the commission to gain support from racing, retail and online gambling companies.
The BGC believes that existing reforms need to be evaluated first and then followed by another reform. The GPC wants to conduct a more extensive review of the gambling laws. Evidence received during the coming year will show which side has more weight.
Consumers, operators and other relevant organisations are invited by the commission to submit their evidence. The funding, membership and research methods of the commission itself need to be the subject of the same scrutiny.
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