Legislators in Gibraltar, the British Overseas Territory, have given the 2025 Gambling Bill a smooth sailing through the first reading. The bill now has two more stages of approval before it receives a final rubber stamp from the Crown.
On Wednesday, Gibraltar’s 2025 Gambling Bill received successful approval during its first preview in the nation’s legislative assembly. Owing to the new legislation, this Overseas Territory of the United Kingdom is now one step closer to drafting regulatory standards and licensing requirements for betting operators within state lines. After successfully going through the first reading, lawmakers will now advance the bill to the second stage.
Should the bill receive a thumbs-up in the follow-up Committee stage, then in the third reading, Gibraltar’s government will submit it to the Crown, where it will receive final approval. The new 2025 Gambling bill of this British Overseas Territory shall replace the current 2005 Gambling Act, which initially outlined internet gambling regulations across Europe and the UK.
Legislators in Gibraltar first tabled the 2025 Gambling Bill in June last year. However, four years prior, officials and stakeholders had already begun preliminary discussions on the regulatory framework and conducted consultations on the draft over three years before parliamentary presentation.
During the lengthy course, the drafting committee made several structural amendments to the document. Following the revisions, it received a compliance mandate from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). For this reason, 2 years ago, in 2024, the FATF took Gibraltar off its gray list of jurisdictions that are considered high risk in the online gambling scene.
Ahead of the Autumn Budget in 2025, the UK’s Chancellor of the Exchequer announced tax hikes that included a plan to up the Remote Gaming Duty from 21% to 40% starting in April 2026. Following the regulatory update, stakeholders in Gibraltar’s gambling sector voiced their interest right away, as a couple of gambling operators that serve UK players are also licensed in Gibraltar.
Gambling industry leaders, starting from Andrew Layman, the Gibraltar Gambling Commissioner, issued a warning that the tax hikes would hurt the local economy. During the reading on Wednesday, Nigel Feetham KC MP, the Minister for Trade, Justice and Industry, tackled the said economic challenges head on.
Feetham pointed out that his ministry was working tirelessly to bridge the financial gap that the UK’s recent tax decision would create. He, however, recognized that new market players couldn’t restore corporate tax proceeds in Gibraltar by the end of 2026. But then, he noted that the current growth in the gambling scene would still generate critical revenue streams for the future of the industry.
Gibraltar’s government has crafted the new regulatory regime upon vital technical and economic frameworks. From a technical standpoint, the new bill tightens control for the Gibraltar Gambling Commission (GGC) as it will roll out risk-based strategies for regulatory enforcement and fines for non-compliance.
Meanwhile, economically, the updated legislation will increase the requirements for licensed acquisition across the entire industry. The new regulation also has new guidelines that dictate individual accountability for senior companies with a valid gambling license.
Additionally, the 2025 Gambling Bill will unveil new measures for B2B activity and gambling advertising. New license categories are also part of the regulation, so that there’s more coverage for operational thresholds.
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