UK gambling operators are preparing for a possible rise in Gambling Commission licence fees after consultation materials briefly appeared online in what was described as a publishing error. The papers outline multiple ways to raise annual fees, including an overall 30% uplift.
The timing matters because operators are already absorbing wider cost pressure from tax changes that start this April, raising the risk of a cumulative hit to margins across online and retail businesses.
Three fee options and a October 2026 target
The consultation sets out three headline models: an overall 30% increase, an overall 20% increase, or a 20% increase plus an extra 10% ring-fenced for tackling illegal markets and protecting licensed operators’ revenue.
The DCMS plan is to bring changes in through secondary legislation, with an intended start date of 1 October 2026. The consultation is published as opening on 27 January 2026 and closing at 11:59pm on 29 March 2026.
How fees would be calculated and what else would rise
The documents indicate the increases would not be applied evenly across every licence. For most products, fees would be refined based on market share and weighted by regulatory risk, while some categories would get a flat percentage uplift.
The framework also links operator application fees and “first annual fees” to whatever annual fee option is chosen, and it says personal licence fees, variation fees, and change-of-control applications would rise by either 20% or 30%.
Why the leak matters for budgets and compliance
The papers frame the fee review around cost recovery and growing work on enforcement and reform delivery, signaling a push to close a funding gap through operator-paid fees rather than holding schedules flat.
Next, the industry will focus on whether the final consultation keeps the same “preferred” option and how quickly DCMS moves from consultation to regulations. The detail that matters most will be which licence bands carry the biggest uplift once market-share and risk weighting are applied.
