Falsely accused of match-fixing, Lucas Paquetá has just been definitively cleared by the Football Association.
This is a major turning point for the regulation of gambling-related harm in the United Kingdom. After years of advocating for stable public funding, the charity GambleAware will cease operations for good in March 2026. The announcement was made following the introduction of a mandatory statutory levy to replace the current system of voluntary contributions from gambling operators.
In 2024, the United Kingdom Gambling Commission (UKGC) revealed that 4.31% of active betting accounts (643,779 accounts out of nearly 15 million) had been subject to commercial restrictions. These actions ranged from betting limits to outright closure, with no direct link to anti-money laundering or financial vulnerability.
On 16 July 2025, a 16-year-old teenager saw a Hollywoodbets advert displayed on the Virtual Football League (VFL) website, an e-sports portal. His profile clearly indicated that he was a minor, yet the advert was shown to him despite this. This breach prompted the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) to launch a thorough investigation.
Since July 2025, a growing group of Labour MPs outside government have been raising their voices in opposition to the party leadership. These elected representatives, both new and old, are calling for the 2005 Gambling Act to be abolished, as it has been described as outdated in the face of current digital practices.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has targeted three banner ads from games publisher Play’n GO Malta Ltd. Distributed via the Adroll platform, the ads featured a superhero bunny, a DJ robot and anime-style princesses. The ASA considers that these visuals, despite their ‘18+’ labels and responsible gaming messages, were likely to attract under-18s.
The UK government is considering raising the tax on online gambling from 21% to a record 41%. The move, which would be one of the most aggressive in the UK gambling industry’s tax history, is part of a budgetary strategy to plug a public deficit estimated at more than £30 billion.
For the 2025 edition of Wimbledon, the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club has broken new ground. Gone are the suspects spotted solely via the bookmakers’ odds: Wimbledon is now deploying undercover agents (“spotters”) in the stands to track down courtsiders, the live bettors who exploit the time lag between the actual point and its televised broadcast.
On 10 October 2025, the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) will roll out a new system of financial penalties. The key element: the amount of fines will be directly linked to the percentage of GGY (gross gambling yield) generated by the operator during the period in question. A radical reform designed to strengthen justice, fraud prevention and player protection.
Since April 2025, the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) has been sounding the alarm: the British government is planning to merge taxes on online betting, raising the tax on horse racing betting from 15% to 21%, the same rate as for casino gambling. This change would represent a loss of at least £66 million a year (around €76 million) for the industry, with a risk of £160 million (€185 million) if the rates rise further.
A major international gambling fair took place in London in early July: iGB Live. More than 15,000 people from the gambling world gathered there.
On Monday 8 July, Flutter Entertainment confirmed that there has been a data leak at gambling sites Paddy Power and Betfair. In the process, players’ personal data was captured.
At the beginning of June 2025, the British giant Entain, owner of the Sportingbet trademark, saw its complaint rejected by the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO). The company was seeking to prevent Italian operator Sportbet S.R.L. from registering the ‘Sportbet’ trademark. But against all expectations, the EUIPO rejected Entain’s opposition, ruling that the terms ‘sport’ and ‘bet’ are too generic to be protected by an exclusive right.
In the highly regulated world of British gambling, the white label model has become a strategic entry point for many foreign brands. Rather than obtaining their own licence (a long, costly and complex process), these companies join forces with an operator already licensed in the UK.
The world of British basketball has been rocked by a vast match-fixing scandal. Six former players in the British Basketball League (BBL), including five former members of Surrey Scorchers, have been sanctioned for serious offences relating to the manipulation of results and illegal sports betting.
The world of online gambling is under intense scrutiny, and Ladbrokes has just paid the price. In promoting its Ladbucks rewards programme, the British operator has crossed a red line in the eyes of the UK’s advertising regulator.
