Qualitative Research in Land-Based Premises

Introduction and Background:
The Gambling Commission is an executive non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.
The Commission is responsible for issuing personal gambling licences for individuals and gambling operating licences for businesses operating in Great Britain and we are responsible for ensuring all licensed gambling is conducted subject to the following licensing objectives:
• preventing gambling from being a source of crime or disorder, being associated with crime or disorder or being used to support crime
• ensuring that gambling is conducted in a fair and open way
• protecting children and other vulnerable people from being harmed or exploited by gambling.
In January 2025, we published a consultation which proposed changes to our requirements on licensees, through the Gaming Machine Technical Standards (GMTS), Gaming Machine Testing Strategy (testing strategy) and the Licence Conditions and Codes of Practice (LCCP).
This was in connection with the commitment in the April 2023 Gambling Act Review White Paper (*1) that set out that:
“The Gambling Commission will conduct a review of its gaming machine technical standards. The review will include an assessment of the role of session limits across category B and C machines and the role of safer gambling tools. The review will consider the effects of any legislative change following the Gambling Act Review and, where appropriate, will consolidate the progress made so far by the industry on a voluntary basis.”
In January 2026, we set out our position in relation to our proposal to introduce a licence condition to more effectively address non-compliant gaming machines (*2). The new licence condition came into effect on 29 July 2026. Our September response (*3) sets out our position in relation to all other proposals within the consultation published in January 2025.
In line with fulfilling our 2024-2027 corporate strategy which includes evaluating the GAR...