UK government greenlights 55% annual UKGC licence fees increase

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has approved changes that would see annual fees for remote gambling licences in the UK increase by 55% from 1 October 2021.

Releasing feedback on a prior UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) consultation on changes to licence fees, DCMS revealed it had received 24 responses from trade associations, licensed gambling operators, members of the public, academics and representatives of the House of Lords (Peers for Gambling Reform).

Of the 24 responses, six voiced their support for increasing annual fees while the rest, including industry representatives, questioned the timing for implementation, with many highlighting the closures to non-remote gambling premises during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Annual fees for online casino, sports betting and bingo licences will increase 55%, with a pre-existing 5% discount applied for operators holding multiple licences being removed.

In respect of remote (online) licence fees, eight responses were received, with just three indicating their support for the increases. Many of the negative responses said that while the increases were appropriate to support the UKGC, the level of the increase was not.

Of the 15 respondents to the question concerning the 5% discount removal, six supported the proposal while nine did not.

There was broad support for simplifying the fees structure to enable administration costs to be reduced, however some respondents thought this should be achieved by reducing the number of operating licences overall, not by removing discounts.

“A number of operators felt that there were still economies of scale for regulating combined operators, and therefore the discounts should be retained,” DCMS wrote.

“One respondent felt that the discounts should be retained for dual licences, but not for combined licences to reflect the different economies of scale in these two situations,” the government added.

In addition, DCMS has approved an increase to the so-called ‘flat’ additional annual fee payable by remote operators with a combination of online casino, bingo or virtual event betting licences.

If a combined licence includes any two of those licence types, the flat additional annual fee payable will rise from £2,500 to £5,000. In the event the combined licence includes all three of those types, the additional flat annual fee would go from £5,000 to £10,000.

Annual fees payable by white-label operators would also increase by 55%, with additional annual fees for licences that combine two or three ‘host’ licence types (betting, casino, bingo) doubling under proposals.

Fees would increase from £1,875 to £3,750 for licences that combine two host licence types and from £3,750 to £7,500 for those that combine all three.

A proposed increase to annual fees for non-remote operating licences, which would have seen fees rise by 15% will, DCMS has confirmed, be pushed back to 1 April 2022.