New Gambling Commission Chair Ends 20-Month Vacancy

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has appointed Ruth Evans as the new Chair of the Gambling Commission, ending a leadership gap that has lasted nearly two years. Her five-year term begins on 30 September 2026, and if you hold an account with a UK-licensed casino or betting site, she will be the person ultimately overseeing the regulator that sets the rules your operator has to follow.

What’s actually changed

Britain’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport has appointed Ruth Evans as the new chair of the Gambling Commission, with the five-year term beginning on 30 September and following Charles Counsell’s period as interim chair, who stepped into the role following Marcus Boyle’s departure in January 2025.

The gambling regulator had been without a permanent chair for 20 months.

Evans is not a gambling-industry figure.
She is a founder of Stop Scams UK and has previously chaired the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority and an advisory group at the Financial Conduct Authority.

She has also been chair of the Bar Standards Board, spent nine years as a lay member of the General Medical Council chairing its Standards and Ethics Committee, and served as a non-executive director for the Serious Fraud Office.
Much of her career has centred on financial crime and consumer redress:
her work combatting financial crime included chairing the steering group that facilitated the reimbursement of victims of authorised push payment bank transfer scams.

Announcing the appointment, DCMS Secretary of State Lisa Nandy said Evans
“becomes chair at this incredibly important time, supporting a sustainable, thriving industry with the essential protections needed to prevent harm.”
Evans herself said she was
“delighted to have been appointed chair of the Gambling Commission at a time when its role in keeping gambling fair, safe and crime-free is more important than ever.”

The vacancy at the top has been part of a wider gap in the Commission’s senior team.
Evans becomes the first permanent Chair appointed since Boyle’s departure and takes office while the Commission continues to undergo wider leadership changes, having also seen Chief Executive Andrew Rhodes leave his post earlier this year and Executive Director Tim Miller announce his departure in June, with Sarah Gardner currently serving as acting CEO.
There has been change on the government side too:
following the formation of Andy Burnham’s Labour administration, Vicky Foxcroft MP replaced Baroness Twycross as gambling minister.

What it means for you

For most players, a change of Chair does not alter the rules on your account overnight — deposit limits, stake caps and self-exclusion via GamStop continue as before. But the appointment matters because the Chair sits at the top of the body that decides how firmly those rules are enforced and how quickly further reforms are rolled out. With a permanent Chair and acting CEO now in place, the Commission is better placed to press ahead with unfinished parts of the Gambling Act Review, including ongoing work on affordability checks and the statutory levy that operators pay to fund research, education and treatment.

Evans’s own background in tackling financial crime and consumer scams is notable given the Commission’s current priorities.
She joins the Commission at an important time for the gambling sector, as it develops a new strategy, ramps up its work to tackle illegal gambling and completes its part in the implementation of the Gambling Act Review.
If you use a licensed operator, that focus is likely to translate into continued scrutiny of how firms check where customer money comes from — an area that has already produced several licence suspensions this year.

The bigger picture

The appointment lands at a moment when the licensed market is under pressure from both regulation and competition.
Evans’s appointment comes at a crucial time, with UK iGaming operators battling against a black market estimated to have generated $50bn in gross revenue in 2025, according to a report shared by the Betting and Gaming Council.
Filling the Chair’s seat, alongside the search for a permanent Chief Executive, is widely seen as a step towards giving the regulator clearer, more consistent leadership as it works through the remaining White Paper commitments and continues its enforcement drive against both licensed operators and the illegal market that sits outside its reach.

Sources

• NEXT.io – Gambling Commission appoints Ruth Evans as Chair
• Gaming Intelligence – Gambling Commission names Ruth Evans as new chair
• iGaming Expert – GC Chair appointment comes at crucial moment for UK iGaming
• World Casino Directory – Ruth Evans Confirmed as Gambling Commission Chair
• Focus Gaming News – Ruth Evans named British Gambling Commission chair
• GOV.UK – Ruth Evans appointed as Chair of the Gambling Commission