Fees of Gambling Commission in the UK Are Going to Increase Starting From October 2026

UK gambling businesses should be ready for additional costs due to the recently finished consultation by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport regarding Gambling Commission’s financing. As reported by the Gambling Commission, the consultation results have been published on 30 June 2026.

Namely, licensing fees will grow by 25%. Yet, the specific impact will depend on the licensing category because new ones are being added for most types of licences. To figure out how the changes will affect you, it is necessary to review the annexes to the Government’s response document.

This update is not related to online casinos or sports betting operators only. The Gambling Commission has emphasized that there will be no change in the fees of societies lottery, but a new calculation system of fees will be implemented for non-remote general betting limited licence holders. Personal licences fees are going to increase by 25%.

According to GOV.UK, the new fees are going to be applied starting from 1 October 2026. The consultation itself has run from January to March 2026 and collected 47 responses from gambling operators and their representatives.

From a gambling business perspective, this news is important as it adds one more cost to the list of expenses gambling businesses have to deal with at the time of increased regulatory requirements and higher taxes. The Gambling Commission has stated that in the upcoming weeks, all operators will be notified about their revised licensing categories.

From an iGaming market perspective, the trend is obvious: the regulation gets more expensive for operators and they need to allocate additional money for the purposes of compliance. For New Zealanders interested in the customer-facing part of online gambling, you can also start from our real money online roulette guide. 

Last updated: 3/07/2026