The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) has announced further changes to strengthen consumer protection tools and give players greater control over their gambling.
Currently, operators must provide customers with the ability to set personal budgets when registering or making their first deposit. To improve consistency and clarity, the Commission is updating its rules on how financial limits are defined and communicated.
Key Changes
- From 30 June 2026, all online operators will be required to offer customers a ‘deposit limit’ based solely on the amount of money paid into their account over a chosen period.
- To avoid confusion, only this type of restriction may be referred to as a “deposit limit.”
- Operators may still provide other types of limits, such as loss limits or limits that factor in withdrawals, but these must be clearly distinguished.
Staged Implementation
The new framework will be rolled out in phases. A major milestone arrives on 31 October 2025, when all gambling businesses must:
- Prompt customers to set a financial limit before their first deposit, and make it simple to review or adjust that limit.
- Remind customers every six months to review their account and transaction history.
- Offer account-level financial limits using free-text entry, allowing players to set meaningful, personalized thresholds.
- Provide clear, visible links to limit-setting tools on both the homepage and deposit pages, minimizing the number of clicks required.
- Action any customer request to decrease a financial limit immediately.
Commission Statement
Helen Rhodes, UKGC Director of Major Policy Projects, said:
“Our work will help empower consumers to have greater awareness and control over their gambling. These further changes will also bring consistency and clarity for those consumers choosing to set deposit limits, while still supporting gambling businesses to offer customer choice for different forms of limits.”
