UK Statutory Gambling Levy: Why the 1.1% Rate Is Not 0.1% and What Every Licensee Owes from April 2025

The statutory gambling levy came into force on 6 April 2025, replacing the Gambling Commission’s longstanding voluntary Research, Education and Treatment (RET) contribution framework with a mandatory payment collected by the Commission under the strategic direction of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Every licensee holding a Gambling Commission remote or non-remote operating licence is now subject to the levy. The old LCCP social responsibility code provision requiring contributions to Commission-approved RET bodies has been removed from the Licence Conditions and Codes of Practice as a direct consequence. If your compliance calendar still references the voluntary RET list, that obligation no longer exists. A new statutory one has taken its place.

Why 1.1% Is Correct and Where the 0.1% Error Comes From

The most common misconception in circulation is that the statutory levy rate is 0.1% of gross gambling yield. That figure is wrong, and its persistence causes compliance teams to materially underestimate their levy liability. The confusion has a specific origin: under the former LCCP social responsibility code, the Gambling Commission set a minimum voluntary contribution of 0.1% of GGY to Commission-approved bodies. That minimum was a floor, not a rate, and it applied to the old voluntary system. It ceased to be relevant on 6 April 2025.

The statutory levy rates are set by the Gambling (Levy) Regulations 2025 and vary by licensed activity. The highest rate applies to remote gambling licensees. As confirmed by GOV.UK guidance, the rate charged to remote casino, betting and bingo operators is 1.1% of gross gambling yield. This is more than ten times the old voluntary minimum. Land-based sectors attract lower rates, reflecting the differential in GGY generation and the policy judgment that remote gambling carries greater harm potential per pound of yield.

The Statutory Basis: Section 123 of the Gambling Act 2005

The power to impose the statutory levy has existed since the Gambling Act 2005 received Royal Assent, but it lay dormant for nearly two decades. Section 123 of the Act empowers the Secretary of State to make regulations requiring gambling operators to pay a levy to the Gambling Commission. The April 2023 White Paper, High Stakes: Gambling Reform for the Digital Age, committed the government to activating that power. A formal consultation ran between 17 October and 14 December 2023, inviting views on the levy’s structure, distribution, and governance. The Gambling (Levy) Regulations 2025 emerged from that process, bringing the levy into force at the start of the 2025, 2026 financial year.

The statutory levy commenced in April 2025, and commissioners have started to communicate how funding will flow across the system. Operators are required to pay into the levy by October each year. The levy is collected and administered by the Gambling Commission under the strategic direction of the UK government, and has replaced the previous system of voluntary industry contributions.

What the Levy Replaced: The Voluntary RET Framework

Under the pre-2025 system, the Gambling Commission’s Licence Conditions and Codes of Practice required licensees to make annual financial contributions to one or more Commission-approved organisations delivering or supporting research, education, or treatment of gambling-related harms. The Commission maintained a list of approved bodies, GambleAware was the dominant recipient, and operators could select from that list when fulfilling their obligation. Contributions were theoretically voluntary in mechanism (operators chose the recipient) but mandatory in obligation (the code provision required contribution at or above the minimum threshold).

The structural weaknesses of that system were extensively documented. Critics pointed to conflicts of interest arising from the direct funding relationship between the gambling industry and the bodies meant to independently assess gambling harm. Research independence was questioned when funding derived from operators with a commercial interest in the findings. The levy resolves that structural issue by interposing government commissioners between the industry and the funded organisations. Operators pay to the Gambling Commission, government bodies commission the services, the research, prevention, and treatment sectors receive funds through transparent grant processes rather than direct industry contracts.

GambleAware, which had been the primary vehicle for distributing voluntary RET contributions, closed its doors at the end of March 2026. The organisations it had historically supported, including GamCare and Gordon Moody, now receive funds through government commissioning processes under the statutory framework. Organisations seeking levy funding must have ceased all direct industry funding from April 2026 to remain eligible, the independence requirement is structural, not aspirational.

The Three Commissioners and How Funds Flow

Levy income does not flow as a single undifferentiated pot. The Gambling (Levy) Regulations 2025 direct funding in specified proportions across three streams, each with a designated commissioning body.

Research is commissioned by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). UKRI receives 20% of levy income. For the 2025, 2026 financial year, that allocation amounts to £22.1 million. In May 2026, UKRI deployed that funding through the Gambling Harms Research UK (GHR-UK) Evidence Centre, a consortium led by the Universities of Glasgow, Sheffield and Swansea, together with King’s College London. The centre carries 19 active Innovation Partnerships and is designed to address long-standing evidential gaps in gambling harm research, spanning gambling and sport, online and video-game gambling, and the structural drivers of harm.

Prevention is commissioned in England by the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID), an executive agency of the Department of Health and Social Care. In April 2026, DHSC provisionally allocated £25.4 million to 33 voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations for the 2026, 2028 period. The largest single grants went to GamCare (£4.04 million) and the Young Gamers and Gamblers Education Trust, YGAM (£3 million). An additional £12 million was allocated to upper-tier local authorities for community-level prevention work. Scotland and Wales commission prevention services through their respective devolved health frameworks.

Treatment has been commissioned in England by NHS England, which received the responsibility from the former GambleAware structure. However, the NHS Modernisation Bill, announced in the King’s Speech 2026, proposes to abolish NHS England and replace it with Integrated Care Boards operating at regional level. Gordon Moody, one of the UK’s leading specialist treatment providers, received £4.5 million from OHID in the first commissioning round. GamCare, which operates the National Gambling Helpline, received £4 million. The treatment commissioning structure in England faces structural change as NHS England’s abolition proceeds, though GamCare has publicly committed to continuity throughout any administrative transition.

Stream	Commissioner (England)	Allocation (2025, 26)	Example Recipients
Research	UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)	£22.1 million (20%)	GHR-UK Evidence Centre (Glasgow, Sheffield, Swansea, King’s College London)
Prevention	Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID / DHSC)	£25.4 million (2026, 28 period)	GamCare (£4.04m), YGAM (£3m); 31 further VCSE organisations, £12m to local authorities
Treatment	NHS England (transitioning to ICBs)	Proportion of ~£120m total raised	Gordon Moody (£4.5m OHID round), GamCare (£4m)

Calculating the Levy: Gross Gambling Yield and the October Deadline

The levy is charged as a percentage of gross gambling yield, defined consistently with the Gambling Commission’s established GGY methodology as stakes minus winnings returned to customers. The relevant GGY figure is that generated in the preceding financial year, and payment falls due by October each year. A licensee whose financial year runs April to March will therefore calculate levy liability on the GGY reported in regulatory returns for that year and must settle the balance by October following year-end.

For context on the scale of liability this creates: the UK gambling industry generated £16.8 billion in total GGY for the year ending March 2025, according to Gambling Commission industry statistics. Remote casino, betting and bingo combined generated the majority of that figure. At a 1.1% rate applied to remote GGY of approximately £6.9 billion (the figure cited in HM Treasury’s April 2025 consultation on remote gambling duty), the levy generates well over £70 million from the remote sector alone before land-based contributions are added. The Commission’s own guidance confirms that the levy raised just under £120 million in its first year, consistent with those base figures.

Licensees holding multiple licence types must apportion GGY to each activity and apply the relevant rate for each. A licensee with both a remote casino licence and a land-based betting licence will face the 1.1% rate on remote GGY and the applicable lower rate on land-based GGY separately. There is no blended single rate. The levy is activity-specific by design, reflecting the policy intention to weight the burden towards remote gambling, which the government treats as generating higher harm per pound of yield.

The LCCP Transition: What Changed in the Rulebook

The removal of the LCCP RET list requirement was not automatic. It required a formal LCCP consultation process, which the Gambling Commission ran in parallel with the government’s levy legislation. The Commission confirmed in its ‘We Asked, You Said, We Did’ consultation response that the LCCP social responsibility code provisions requiring contributions to approved RET bodies would be removed on the basis that “the government is moving ahead with the introduction of the statutory levy and has brought forward the necessary legislation for the levy to come into force on 6 April 2025. Once this is brought into force it will replace the current voluntary system for funding research into the prevention and treatment of gambling-related harms.”

The practical implication for compliance teams is that the approved body list, which once required operators to select from Commission-approved organisations, no longer governs funding obligations. Operators no longer choose a recipient, make a direct contribution, or maintain evidence of that contribution as a LCCP compliance matter. The levy obligation is discharged by paying the calculated sum to the Gambling Commission by the October deadline. The Commission handles all downstream disbursement through the commissioning bodies. The full timeline of LCCP amendments connected to the Gambling Act Review, including the RET list removal, is tracked in the LCCP change log.

The removal of the RET approved-body list from the LCCP is not a weakening of the social responsibility framework. It is the point at which responsibility for funding independence shifted from operators to government commissioners.

Regulatory Settlement Funds and the Levy

The introduction of the statutory levy created an ancillary compliance question for licensees subject to regulatory settlements: where do settlement payments now go? Under the pre-levy framework, regulatory settlement amounts were frequently directed to GambleAware or other RET-approved bodies as a condition of the settlement. With GambleAware closed and the approved-body framework dissolved, that routing is no longer available.

The Gambling Commission opened a consultation in 2026 proposing to amend section 2.39 of its Statement of Principles for Determining Financial Penalties to address the destination of future regulatory settlement payments. The Commission’s position is that financial penalties continue to flow to the Consolidated Fund, while regulatory settlements require updated policy to reflect the new levy architecture. Licensees in settlement discussions with the Commission should seek explicit written confirmation of the payment destination and governance arrangements applicable to any remedial payment component, as this area remains in active regulatory development at the time of writing.

Interaction with Wider Tax Reform

The statutory levy is a separate obligation from Remote Gaming Duty and General Betting Duty. It is not a tax in the HMRC sense and is not administered by HMRC. It is a regulatory charge collected by the Gambling Commission. This distinction matters for financial reporting: levy payments are not deductible from GGY in calculating gambling duty liability, and the two obligations operate on independent timelines. Remote Gaming Duty, currently at 21% of GGY for remote gaming and rising to 40% from April 2026 per the Autumn Budget 2025 duty reforms, is payable quarterly to HMRC on a point-of-consumption basis regardless of where the operator is located. The levy is payable annually to the Gambling Commission by October.

Finance teams modelling total regulatory cost of UK market access must account for both streams independently. For a remote casino licensee generating £50 million in GGY annually, the levy obligation is approximately £550,000 per year at the 1.1% rate. That figure stacks on top of Remote Gaming Duty of £10.5 million (at 21%, rising to £20 million at 40% post-April 2026), annual licence fees, and all other compliance costs. The levy’s contribution to total regulatory cost is significant but not dominant: the remote gaming duty rate change dwarfs it in absolute terms. Unlike duty rates, however, the levy rate is set by statutory instrument and can be adjusted without primary legislation, meaning it can increase without the same parliamentary scrutiny that a Finance Act measure would require.

For a fuller analysis of how licence fees, levy obligations, and duty interact across UKGC and MGA structures, see our cost comparison of UKGC and MGA licensing, which models total cost of ownership for remote operators at different GGY levels.

Devolution: Scotland, Wales, and Great Britain Scope

The statutory levy applies across Great Britain, consistent with the Gambling Act 2005’s geographic scope covering England, Scotland, and Wales. Northern Ireland operates under separate legislation and is not covered by the levy regime. Prevention and treatment commissioning is devolved: OHID commissions for England, while NHS Scotland and the Welsh government commission for their respective nations. Both Scotland and Wales have been proceeding with their commissioning arrangements. The research stream through UKRI is a single Great Britain allocation and is not devolved.

Compliance teams operating retail premises in Scotland or Wales alongside remote operations should ensure their GGY reporting accurately attributes activity by licence type, since the levy rate varies by activity rather than by nation. The devolved commissioning structure affects where funded services are delivered, not the operator’s levy calculation or payment obligation.

Practical Compliance Steps for Licensees

Every licensee must confirm that their regulatory return data for the preceding financial year is accurate before the October payment deadline, since levy liability derives directly from reported GGY. Errors in regulatory returns cascade into levy miscalculations. The Commission’s move to quarterly regulatory returns, consulted on simultaneously with the levy framework, means that GGY data is available at greater granularity and timeliness than under annual returns, reducing the risk of significant year-end reconciliation adjustments.

Compliance policies that previously referenced the LCCP RET list, the approved-body contribution requirement, or GambleAware as a named funding recipient need to be updated. The obligation is now discharged through the levy payment and requires no further operator action in terms of recipient selection or contribution evidence. Any organisation that was previously a named recipient in operator grant agreements or social responsibility policies should be reviewed: those contracts have no ongoing compliance relevance, and their continuation could create reputational or governance complications given the independence requirements now attached to levy-funded bodies.

Licensees should also note that the Gambling Levy Transition Fund (GLTF), established by DCMS to bridge the gap between the closure of voluntary funding and the first commissioning rounds under the levy, was a temporary instrument. Its purpose was to prevent service gaps for vulnerable users during the transition period. The GLTF is not an ongoing mechanism and does not affect licensee obligations.

The broader responsible gambling compliance framework, including GAMSTOP integration, customer interaction requirements under LCCP 3.4.3, and financial risk assessment obligations introduced through the White Paper reform process, operates in parallel with the levy. The levy funds the infrastructure, the LCCP provisions govern how licensees must interact with customers showing signs of harm. These are complementary, not substitutable. Further detail on the full spectrum of responsible gambling obligations across all regulated markets is available in our Responsible Gambling Compliance hub.

Compliance officers should consult qualified legal counsel for jurisdiction-specific advice on levy calculation, payment mechanics, and any treatment of levy obligations in group corporate structures where multiple licensees within a group each hold separate Gambling Commission licences.

Key Resources

Department for Culture, Media and Sport, ‘Statutory gambling levy’, GOV.UK guidance (published 18 December 2025, last updated 26 March 2026): www.gov.uk/government/publications/statutory-gambling-levy

Gambling Commission, ‘We Asked, You Said, We Did’ consultation response on LCCP changes including removal of RET list requirement: www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk

HM Government, High Stakes: Gambling Reform for the Digital Age, White Paper, April 2023 (Chapter 6, statutory levy): www.gov.uk/government/publications/high-stakes-gambling-reform-for-the-digital-age

Department of Health and Social Care, VCSE Sector Gambling Harms Prevention and Resilience Funding 2026, 2028: www.gov.uk/government/publications/preventing-gambling-harms-vcse-funding-2026-to-2028

Gambling Act 2005, Section 123 (statutory levy power): www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2005/19/section/123