British Gambling Commission to introduce new laws and tools deposit limits
Further improvements to tools that help consumers to manage their gambling are to be introduced
To increase consumer empowerment, the UK Gambling Commission is amending the rules on setting personal budgets for online gambling and betting to provide further consistency and clarity for customers when setting financial limits. These changes focus on how these limits are defined and communicated to customers.
Operators are currently required to offer tools so online customers can easily set personal budgets for gambling at registration or when they first deposit money into their gambling account.
From 30 June 2026 all online operators must provide customers with the opportunity to set a ‘deposit limit’ which is based solely on the amount a customer pays into their account over a set duration. To avoid confusion, only this form of limit may be called a ‘deposit limit’.
In addition, gambling businesses will also be able to offer different limits, such as loss limits or limits where withdrawals are also taken into account.
The improvements to the rules are coming into effect in stages, and a key milestone is the set of previously announced changes which will come into effect on 31 October 2025 and require all gambling businesses to prompt their customers to set a financial limit before they make their first deposit and make it easy for them to review and alter their limit. They must remind consumers every six months to review their account and transaction information to help customers maintain control of their gambling spend. They must offer financial limits using free text at an account level to help customers set meaningful limits. They must provide financial limit-setting facilities via a link on the homepage and deposit pages which are clearly visible and accessible, with the number of clicks to reach these facilities minimalised. The Commission has also outlined how operators must action all customer requests to decrease a financial limit immediately.
Helen Rhodes, Commission Director of Major Policy Projects, said: “Our work will help empower consumers to have greater awareness and control over their gambling. These further changes will also bring consistency and clarity for those consumers choosing to set deposit limits, while still supporting gambling businesses to offer customer choice for different forms of limits.”
