Welcome to the Gambling Commission’s fortnightly newsletter.
In this edition:
1) £825,000 fine for Done Brothers (Cash Betting) Limited 2) Arrangements for signposting to GambleAware resources
3) Regulators call for stronger measures against illegal online gambling 4) GSGB to continue for a further four years
5) Changes to operator licence application form
6) Updated SAR guidance from the UKFIU
7) Industry Statistics 2025 blog
8) Recent public appearances
1) £825,000 fine for Done Brothers (Cash Betting) Limited
Done Brothers (Cash Betting) Limited, trading as Betfred, will pay £825,000 after a Commission investigation revealed social responsibility and anti-money laundering failures.
The operator, which runs a number of betting shops, will also receive a warning and have to undergo a third-party audit to ensure it is effectively implementing its anti-money laundering and safer gambling policies, procedures and controls.
2) Arrangements for signposting to GambleAware resources
Under the statutory levy, the responsibility for developing and implementing the approach for delivering gambling harm prevention activity sits with the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) for England, and the Scottish and Welsh Governments.
Both OHID and GambleAware remain committed to ensuring that during this transition period to the new statutory gambling levy system, people at risk of or experiencing harms from gambling have access to advice, tools and support, with no interruption of service.
To ensure continuity, and as OHID continues to develop plans for the future prevention system under the levy, OHID and GambleAware have confirmed that operators should continue to adhere to the BGC-IGRG Gambling Industry Code for Socially Responsible Advertising and so should continue to signpost to GambleAware resources. OHID will provide further information on the future of the prevention programme, including the future of the GambleAware website, at a future date.
3) Regulators call for stronger measures against illegal online gambling
Regulators of Austria, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Portugal and Spain have issued a joint institutional statement.
The statement marks a renewed and united commitment by our jurisdictions to strengthen the integrity of the regulated gambling sector and to protect citizens from the risks posed by illegal gambling activities.
The Gambling Commission has awarded a four-year contract (2026–2029) to the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) and the University of Glasgow to deliver the Gambling Survey for Great Britain (GSGB).
On 4 December we published the second wave of data collected through the GSGB in 2025. Year 3 (2025), wave 2 data is based on responses collected between April 2025 and July 2025.
Changes to the operator licence application forms through Application Online and eServices will be going live on 10 December 2025.
For those with applications currently in progress you will have received an email outlining the position regarding the affected sections and any accompanying data and/or documents.
The United Kingdom Financial Intelligence Unit (UKFIU) has published updated Suspicious Activity Reporting (SAR) guidance, which all Gambling Commission operating licensees are encouraged to review.
Commission Chief Executive Andrew Rhodes gave a speech at the British Amusement Catering Trade Association (BACTA) Annual Convention on 27 November 2025.
Director of Policy Ian Angus gave a speech at the Institute of Licensing (IoL) Conference on 27 November 2025.
