UK Councils’ Gambling Checks Under Fire as Crackdown Grows
Local authorities are supposed to inspect the betting shops, arcades and casinos on their patch, but the Gambling Commission’s own figures show many councils simply aren’t doing it. That uncomfortable gap has been put back in the spotlight as the regulator simultaneously intensifies its national campaign against illegal and unlicensed gambling, with fresh joint operations and enforcement actions logged in recent weeks.
What’s actually changed
The Commission’s most recent licensing authority returns, covering the period to March 2025, made for sobering reading.
Roughly a third of licensing authorities didn’t conduct any inspections of gambling premises in that 12-month period, and with some 2,208 inspections carried out across Great Britain, the total was around a third down on inspections since 2019/20, when 3,203 were conducted.
Response rates from councils remain strong on paper –
329 out of 350 licensing authorities submitted returns, a 94% response rate
– but submitting a form isn’t the same as sending an inspector through the door. One report on the figures put it bluntly:
fewer than 50% of local authorities bother conducting the slot machine inspections they’re paid to perform.
Away from the high street, the Commission’s own enforcement teams have been busier.
Since April 2025 the regulator issued 344 cease and desist orders to gambling operators and advertisers, reported 45,674 gambling URLs to search engines with 30,605 removed, referred 466 websites for delisting and disrupted 235 illegal gambling sites through takedowns, while also targeting 264 unlicensed operators using upstream disruption tactics against hosts, payment providers and software developers.
More recently, the Commission’s public log of enforcement work shows it has continued this pattern, including
supporting South Yorkshire Police in a coordinated operation targeting illegal gambling and suspected organised criminal activity in Sheffield and Doncaster
, and confirming that
two people have been arrested as part of an investigation into an illegal casino in Bristol.
There is also a live proposal to give councils sharper teeth.
The Gambling Commission’s director of policy has said he expects the government’s push to give local authorities more powers around gambling licensing to become law, through an amendment to the Gambling Act 2005 creating Gambling Impact Assessments that councils could use to gauge the extent of gambling harm and the potential impact of a new betting or gaming venue.
What it means for you
For most players, this isn’t about a single account change but about who is actually checking the premises and platforms you use. If your local betting shop or arcade hasn’t been inspected in years, the usual safety net of routine council checks – on machine settings, age verification and staff training – may be thinner than you’d assume. The flip side is that the Commission’s own crackdown on illegal gambling, both physical and online, is aimed at squeezing out operators who never carry the same GamStop, deposit-limit and self-exclusion obligations that licensed sites do. If you come across a gambling website or premises that doesn’t display a Gambling Commission licence number, that’s the kind of operation this enforcement drive is meant to catch.
The bigger picture
The uneven inspection picture sits alongside a wider funding and workload debate at the regulator.
From 1 October, Britain’s gambling operators will pay 25% more for most Gambling Commission licences, with the government saying the higher fees are needed to fund the regulator’s expanding responsibilities and address a structural funding shortfall.
Part of that shortfall reflects the scale of illegal-market monitoring the Commission has taken on itself, precisely because, as its own figures show, not every council is pulling its weight on physical inspections. The push for new local powers via Gambling Impact Assessments suggests ministers see devolving more responsibility to councils as part of the fix, rather than simply asking the national regulator to do more with a bigger budget. For players, the practical takeaway is the same one that runs through most of this year’s reforms: licensed, UK-regulated operators remain subject to real oversight, even if that oversight is currently patchy at local level, while unlicensed sites operate outside all of it.
Sources
- iGamingToday – UK councils fail to inspect 50% of gambling premises
