Gambling Act 2005

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The Gambling Act 2005 is a United Kingdom Act of Parliament, mainly applying to England, Wales and Scotland designed to control all forms of gambling. It will transfer authority for licensing gambling from the Magistrates' Courts to local authorities (specifically unitary authorities, and the councils of metropolitan borough, non-metropolitan district and London boroughs), or to Scottish licensing boards.

The Act gives its objectives as

"(a) preventing gambling from being a source of crime or disorder, being associated with crime or disorder or being used to support crime,

(b) ensuring that gambling is conducted in a fair and open way, and

Some provisions of the bill faced controversy, particularly in its original form, where it would have allowed large numbers of so-called "super casinos" to have been set up. With the Parliamentary session drawing to a close, a compromise was agreed to reduce this to one.^[1] The Act also specifically regulates internet gambling for the first time.

The bill is wide-ranging and those in the promotions industry expect its impact to be significant. In particular, its regulation of (illegal) lotteries is likely to have interesting effects. The now familiar "no purchase necessary" clause beloved on on-product promotions and semi-legal competitions will go, replaced with the so-called "New Zealand Model" where purchase may be a requirement, if the purchase is at the "normal selling price". It remains to be seen whether this condition is enforcible in practice.

Potentially more seriously, this provision in the legislation will enable a new category of premium-rate "lottery" promotion - where entry is conditional on the purchase of a product of dubious value, and where the purchase is purely a justification for participation in a high-prize lottery.

The currently vague provisions relating to skill-based competitions are also to be reformed, and in promotions with skill and chance based "rounds", the skill round must occur first, and there are definitions within the Act as to what constitutes "skill".