Millions of us enjoy gambling every year and most suffer no ill effects, so state intervention must be targeted to prevent addictive and harmful gambling. This can and should be done in a proportionate way. Prevention of harm will always be better than a cure, so we are determined to strengthen consumer protections and prevent exploitative practices. We must also pay particular attention to making sure children are protected, including as they become young adults and for the first time are able to gamble on a wide range of products. It has become clear that we must do more to protect those at risk of addiction and associated unaffordable losses. We are enormously grateful to all of those who have contributed to our Review, especially those with personal experience of gambling-related addiction and harms who have spoken out about their own struggles or those of people they love.Īt the heart of our Review is making sure that we have the balance right between consumer freedoms and choice on the one hand, and protection from harm on the other. We received around 16,000 submissions to our Call for Evidence, and ministers and officials have held hundreds of meetings with a huge range of stakeholders to inform a package of policies which will make our gambling laws fit for the digital age. Our aim is to ensure our gambling regulation meets the challenges and seizes the opportunities which have come with the changes since the Gambling Act 2005 was passed. We launched this Review to take an objective, comprehensive look at the evidence.

Likewise, our understanding of gambling-related harms and gambling disorder has developed enormously over recent years. Land-based gambling also finds itself in a very different place in light of these changes, with some of the assumptions which prevailed 18 years ago looking increasingly outdated.

Newly available data and technology can both increase risks to players and facilitate innovative protections. Multinational tech businesses now provide gambling services which customers can engage with from almost anywhere and at any time of day or night. Few who were designing policy in the early 2000s could have foreseen the nature and extent of the changes which have since reshaped our society, the economy and this sector.

The gambling landscape has changed significantly since 2005.

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