Guide

UK Gambling Commission Tightens Age-Verification Rules for All Gambling Premises

18 October 2026

The UK Gambling Commission has announced sweeping new age-verification rules for all gambling operations, both land-based and online. From 30 August 2024, all gambling premises, regardless of size or type of licence, must carry out age-verification test purchasing. Moreover, staff are now required to check the age of any customer who appears to be under 25 years of age.

Previously, the Commission exempted the smallest gambling premises from mandatory age-verification checks. It also used a standardized prompt of "Think 21" - age-checking any customers believed to be under 21. However, the Commission has now closed that loophole and raised the age-verification threshold to 25, based on proposals consulted on in 2023 and hinted in the government's 2023 gambling White Paper.

These on-screen changes complement equally stringent rules for remote gambling operators, which went into effect in 2019. Before making a deposit or wagering a penny, online gambling customers must be rigorously verified, well before they can even spin a free-to-play demo. Operators must check a player's full name, address and date of birth, and retain that proof before turning on the action.

The Commission is clearly looking to guard minors from the temptations of gambling. But their intention - and the challenge they pose - rings doubly loud for No Account Casinos, which let customers play online by whipping out a credit card, no formal account, verification or deposit needed, and begin gambling in seconds. That fundamentally flouts the Commission's online safeguards of pre-deposit and pre-play age verification.

With the release of its new on-premises age-verification rules, regulators are signaling louder than ever their commitment to stricter age-checking industry-wide, both on and offline. For No Account Casinos, which have been criticized for exposing minors to gambling, this escalating push probably means that authorities will come after them even harder, seeing them as the outliers that they are. If they don't want to be in regulators' crosshairs, they'll need to find a workaround for the downsides of on-screen single-row betting or else roll out a No Account system of robust pre-play age verification.