There’s a long train runnin’ and in every compartment there’s a stash of your money waiting to be allocated to an international war on the black market, and lovely new multi-million pound offices for the Gambling Commission. To get that moving, the regulator wants a 30 percent increase in fees from you. It’s time to pull the emergency handle and say to the DCMS – no to a Commission fee increase. Get your objections before it’s too late. After all, without you, where would they be now?
There are circa 19,300 personal licensees lodged with the Gambling Commission; plus 371 AGCs; 154 Bingo clubs; 104 FECs; 389 Gaming Machine Technical – and that’s not including casinos, software, lottery and online operations which raise the tally to 2,179.
And every single one of you is going to face a probable 30 percent increase in your annual fees to the Gambling Commission.
And worse is yet to come: next time round – increases will be decided by the Commission itself … as and when it sees fit.
Unless you act now. You have only four days before Monday’s consultation deadline (11.59 pm 30 March) to make your voice heard to DCMS on whether the Gambling Commission fees should be raised to a max of 30 percent or not at all.
If you believe the Commission fees should not be raised – and Coinslot cannot imagine there are any of you that do – there are plenty of good reasons to object to all the consultation options and to tell the Government that the Commission fees should not be raised.
In last week’s Coinslot, we explained how this can be done. A link to the reasons why appear at the end of this article.
But, whether it’s an objection on the grounds that:
• you are already paying the local authorities to tackle the black market through your licence fee to them;
• the illegal black market operates on a global stage and is run online in unregulated jurisdictions which are outside your licence remit;
• that the Commission simply does not have the skills to lead the war on the international black market especially as it can’t even stop the sale of illegal gaming machines on eBay;
• whether a doubling of the GC’s office premises is justifiable to merit an increase in licence fees.
Your objection is crucial to the decision making process. The proposed fee increase of 30 percent is excessive on its own. But on top of a recent wave of increased costs to the industry through the Gambling Levy, a rise in tax on staff, rising business rates and rampant energy costs, another cost hike will make many small to medium sized operations unsustainable, leading to a further decline on the high street, the loss of more jobs, and most importantly – fewer land based operations which will ultimately result in a larger shift towards the black market where there are no regulatory restrictions – and a greater threat to vulnerable players.
There are 21,500 potential objectors with skin in the game – and there are dozens of reasons why each of them should object to a GC fee increase.
Tell the DCMS why the Gambling Commission does not merit a rise in licence fees.
Ways to respond
Email:
gcfeesreview2026@dcms.gov.uk
Information:
reasons for no fee hikes:
