View from the City: How will gambling act updates play out in the UK and Gibraltar?

Our last View from the City focused on M&A, predicting the trends of 2021 in terms of the number and scale of deals that would persist into 2022. This has arguably been the case, with deals including IGT/iSoftBet, Churchill Downs/P2E and the recently proposed MGM/LeoVegas transaction (although this still faces voter approval, which is not always forthcoming – see Playtech/Aristocrat).

Another persistent feature is that of the known unknowns facing the sector in Europe. The widely anticipated review of the Gambling Act 2005 continues to leave UK-facing operators in a difficult position internally, with the rumour mill continuing apace. At the time of writing (an important caveat, based on recent trends) we have seen in the press that arguably the biggest potential changes of all, namely limits on slots, some form of affordability checks, and advertising restrictions, all remain highly uncertain.

Those operators with interests in Gibraltar will have seen the publication of a new consultation into the revised Gibraltar Gambling Act this month. The consultation sets out a range of refreshed regulatory objectives, including the “preservation of confidence in gambling markets”. While not something we have seen frequently as an objective in gambling regulation, market confidence is a key outcome in financial services regulation. It will be interesting to see how it evolves following the consultation.

Outside of Europe, we continue to wait for initial financial results coming out of Ontario following the launch in April. The conversations we have had with the industry on the regulatory structure have tended to be positive, and we gather initial trading has followed that theme. Speculation that other provinces will use Ontario as a test case for their own regulation remains just that, but initial signs are that there may be more to come in Canada.