Gambling Policy Commission Opens Independent Review of UK Gambling Act

^{The Palace of Westminster. A new independent commission has launched a review of the legislative framework for UK gambling. (Photo: Dietmar Rabich / Wikimedia Commons)}

A new independent body, the Gambling Policy Commission, has launched a review of the legislative framework governing gambling in the UK and an open call for evidence. It will assess whether further reform, including potential new primary legislation, is needed more than 20 years after the Gambling Act 2005.

The Commission announced the review on 9 November. It describes itself as independent of government, political parties, regulators and industry, and is made up mainly of economists, including former advisers to the Bank of England and HM Treasury.

Who Is on the Commission

The group is chaired by Jagjit Chadha OBE, professor of economics at the University of Cambridge and a former director of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research. James Reade, professor of economics at the University of Reading, is serving as chief economist.

The other members are Philippe Auclair, Professor Chris Bojke, Peter Kellner CBE, Professor Lindsey Macmillan, Professor Sir Anton Muscatelli, Dr James Noyes, Professor Janet O’Sullivan and Thomas Savill. The Commission said they come from economics, law, public policy, health, academia and sport.

What the Review Will Cover

The review comes after the Budd Report of 2001, which informed the Gambling Act 2005. The Commission said the Act has been repeatedly criticised as “analogue legislation” that is not fit for the digital age, and that calls to examine its fundamentals have continued in Parliament despite the 2023 White Paper.

Submissions can address the operation of the 2005 Act, the impact of the White Paper reforms, gambling taxation, illicit and offshore gambling, gambling-related harm, consumer protections, gambling and sport, new technology and products, and how regulation is coordinated across government. The Commission particularly welcomes empirical evidence and international comparisons.

“Our purpose is to examine the evidence carefully and independently.”

“The last comprehensive independent review of gambling legislation was undertaken a quarter of a century ago,” Chadha said in the launch announcement. “Since then, both the gambling market and the wider technological environment have changed considerably.”

Context and Deadlines

The Commission cited Department for Culture, Media and Sport estimates that gambling contributed £5bn to gross value added in 2024 and supported around 75,000 jobs in 2025. HM Revenue and Customs recorded £3.9bn in betting and gaming duties in 2025/26, a figure the Office for Budget Responsibility expects to keep rising.

Will Hutton, president of the Academy of Social Sciences, welcomed the launch. He said the rapid growth of prediction markets underlines how the 2005 Act has been overtaken by technology, and that everything from consumer protection to tax policy needs urgent review.

Evidence should be submitted as a PDF through the Commission’s website by Friday 12 February 2027. The Commission aims to publish the submissions it receives, and contributors can flag any part as confidential.

The review is not a government inquiry and has no powers to change the law. It sits alongside the reforms that followed the White Paper, whose rollout the government has been tracking through an update on Gambling Act review implementation.

It also lands as the licensed sector presses for action on the growth of illegal gambling, one of the topics the Commission has invited evidence on.