Andrew Rhodes was unable to provide any clarity on the next stages of implementing the White Paper during his speech at the 2025 World Regulatory Briefing at ICE in Barcelona this week, with the Gambling Commission CEO reverting to the familiar platitudes of “very soon” and “days or weeks” that Coinslot readers will remember so fondly from 2023, and 2022, and 2021…

The CEO of the Gambling Commission was unable to offer the industry any guidance on the future implementation of the White Paper during his speech at the ICE World Regulatory Briefing this week, although there was a hint as to the possible reason why when he noted there is “a lot of work still to be done.”

Addressing international regulatory bodies on Monday 20 January, Andrew Rhodes acknowledged the fact that “the vast majority of this industry wants to do the right thing and wants clarity,” but admitted he was unable to offer any insight into the timetable or order of action.

“In April it will be two years since the UK Government at that time published its Gambling Act Review White Paper, and at the Gambling Commission we have been working hard to implement the recommendations that it laid out,” said Rhodes.

“Whilst the UK went through a General Election last year that resulted in a change of Government, we have not seen a particular political change to the fundamentals to the Government direction on the regulation of gambling and our Government Minister, Baroness Twycross, stated her support for continuing the implementation of those recommendations.”

Despite there being no stated change to the cross-party agreement that brought the White Paper to the table in 2023 progress has stalled, causing frustration throughout the sector.

“The debate is tense,” noted Rhodes. “And with a lot of work still to be done implementing the 2023 White Paper, perhaps that is to be expected.”

“The interactions I have with operators on a weekly basis tells me that the vast majority of this industry wants to do the right thing and wants the clarity the implementation of the 2023 White Paper would bring.”

Speaking on behalf of the Commission, he said: “We have been working hard to implement the outcomes of the 2023 White Paper and that work continues. Very soon – by which I mean days or weeks – we will be publishing our next consultation on Games Machine Technical Standards.”

This may provide cold comfort to those familiar with such vague timelines, however Rhodes was at least able to offer some good news on the Commission’s other stated objectives, noting that in the financial year to date, the regulator has assisted in removing 264 illegal online gambling sites, a tenfold increase on the previous year.

The battle against the illegal, black market is on; protecting the legal, regulated market is off…course.

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