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Gibraltar is finally making a move on its gambling bill 2025, marking a decisive moment in the evolution of the territory's regulatory framework. Three years in development, the bill has been designed to overhaul Gibraltar's regulatory licensing and commercial architecture, redefining how gambling is governed within the British Overseas Territory. The generational shift carries significant consequences for license holders and signals a fundamental reset in Gibraltar's relationship. with the UK. Today, we will cover that and more on a new episode of iGaming Daily brought to you by OptiMove, the creator of positionalist marketing and number one player engagement solution for iGaming and sports betting operators. I'm Fernando Nott, media manager for SBC and your host for today in another segment of TED and TED's talking time today on this. I'm brum brum, I'm out of this. Words with tea, but Terry Norm Clay, editor for SVC News and Ted Mamier, editor at large for SVC. How are you guys today? Terrific, bet. Yes. Yes. Thank you. Thank you very much for terrific is an excellent word. Yes. Can't complain. Sun's out in London and ready to go to drinks with new SBC employees. Already corrupting the new joiners that I see. That's lovely. uh I bet uh management will love that. of course we have uh pressing news to discuss here. Gibraltar making a move, like we said. Some optimistic views. Put it uh on the road to finally make an approval. Maybe it's not there yet. But well done of course to the editorial team on breaking this news yesterday. If you are not subscribed, if you haven't read this, it's because you're not subscribed to SBC Newsletters. So you might as well go ahead and do that now because you should, because you want to keep up to date with all the news in the iGaming and gambling industry worldwide. So make sure you subscribe to all SBC medias and newsletters, especially SBC News, where this story was reported on yesterday. or the day before actually was on Wednesday. So Ted, as it stands, the bill appears to be finally on course for approval. So how important is this moment for Gibraltar? Yeah, this is a pretty significant moment for the territory, think. Gambling is a very core part of its economy, much like Malta in the Isle of Man. It's part of a wider network of the financial industry based there. It's very significant business for it. Lots of companies are domiciled there and licensed there and active internationally, particularly a lot of ones that are UK focused. The territory is obviously expecting a pretty hefty impact from the UK taxes that are going to come into effect in a couple of weeks. Although we should add that think this legislation and Ted, I'm sure, correct me if wrong, dates back to before that whole debate last year. It's been in the... It's been on the agenda for a couple of years, but I think maybe the conversations about UK taxation last year might have spurred the government on a bit to think, right, we need to get this on the ground. We need to pushing the legislative process forward. Gibraltar's legal system, with it being a British overseas territory, does often mirror the UK quite closely. Their current gambling act is like the UK's dating back to 2005. I think it shares a lot of similar clauses and caveats. They've been wanting to update it for a while to meet the changing landscape and the different dynamics of the industry in 2025, 2026 to different, know, to what it was in the mid 2000s, similar to how the UK had its own gambling app review between 2020 and 2023, which we've discussed obviously at length on this podcast. So yeah, think that the bill's unanimous approval during its first reading, I think is obviously very good news for the Gibraltar government and for the industry who wanted to push this through. And I think the fact that it unanimously approved by both parties in the Gibraltar parliament is also indicative of how political stakeholders in Gibraltar are pretty, yeah, unanimous in recognizing the industry's importance to the territory's economy. What exactly is actually changing for the British overseas territory in terms of how it governs gambling licenses and the wider sector? Dedem, you want to take on this one? The bill has been under development for three years and what it sees is Gibraltar pivot to repositioning itself, not only in its relationship with UK gambling, which governed the first gambling act that it had. And that was a very pioneering model for not only the UK but gambling in Europe. Gibraltar was amongst the first jurisdictions to have a specific framework for the governing of online gambling. However, in the space of 20 years, you're seeing is that Gibraltar is responding to a much more complex gambling landscape and a much more broader one. One of the things that the licensing is needed for. or the actors needed for is to enhance licensing across the value chain and gambling. So it's not just focusing on B2C. It will now focus on B2B on the transactional elements of gambling, such as payments, compliance, compliance systems, solutions, and how they kind of fit in uh with B2C operators and also how they are kind of governed and applied by other regimes and how they can be incorporated into kind of Gibraltar's new framework. The other thing here is that the transition over the three-year period was during Gibraltar's placement on the gray list of the FDA and MoneyVal, in which he had to take a, had to re-engineer kind of its AML and transactional and financial protections of the British overseas territory. So I had to kind of consider those changes. There are five kind of principle pillars for the gambling. Bill, One is enhanced enforcement, strengthening AML, broadening licensing. The other kind of key factor here is that it's going to be much tougher on the oversight of the licenses themselves, who holds the license and the senior management that are on the application of the license. So a lot will change in the coming months in how Gibraltar governs gambling licenses. How important is this actually for the for Gibraltar's economy on the ground? Massively. to January, we've been following the story of the guy with a amount of months. In January, we spoke to Andrew Lyman following the implication of the UK's decision to increase remote taxes to 40%. In this era, Gibraltar knows that it's going to take an 80 % cut in its commercial revenues from gambling. In fact, Andrew Lyman was quite sincere that Gibraltar will no longer be making any kind of economic gains at the gambling sector, regardless of the changes that it applies. It is looking at this as a kind of a long term play to kind of form a new platform and a new platform for business. Other kind of considerations that it's taken on board, it's wider kind of licenses beyond the UK to Dover, Sale and Gibraltar. but also the fact that you're going to get a new disciplines coming into the industry, such as crypto, crypto wallets, crypto transactions, and how those, whether those operators can, you know, find, I'd say kind of common jurisdiction in which to kind of place their operations. think Gibraltar will pitch for that. If I could just add on that one as well. I mean, you know, we talk about the significance of this on the ground that I mentioned earlier, the significance of the gambling industry to Gibraltar's economy. You know, we often talk about Malta as being a very significant high gaming hub and obviously is the Malta gaming authority licenses are used by various companies internationally. But you know, in Malta, I believe the statistic is that around one tenth of the island's GDP comes from gambling. In Gibraltar, some of the stats I've read put it as being up to around a third in Gibraltar's case and it employs thousands of people. It's particularly important towards the UK sector. think like Betfred's online operation, Domicile there, BetVictors, I believe to be two prominent examples. That's why the regulation of this industry and ensuring the regulation of it is developed in pace with modern developments like some of the ones that Ted's just mentioned is so important for the Gibraltar government. They really want to make sure they're safeguarding. ensuring the stability of a very, very important pillar of its economy. And Tito, what did the trade minister Nigel Featham say in parliament about this bill specifically? I think it was interesting that he did mention the UK tax hikes. Obviously, like we said earlier, the development of the bill dates back from long before 2025, but last year it was really framed into a different context. during that whole debate around gambling tax in the UK. Obviously, Rachel Reeves ultimately put the remote gaming duty up to 40 % in a November budget that will come into effect on 1st of April. Mr. Thiefen did say he did reference the remote gaming duty increases, I believe. Sorry, I've got his quote written down here somewhere. He agreed that with the sentiment that Ted mentioned about Andrew Lyman, the gambling commissioner, saying about how that they're really going to struggle to claw back that revenue that they'll lose. So I think his quote was, we're working intensely in that pace to bridge as far as possible the gap created by the recent UK tax decision. And then he went on to say that the corporate tax revenues as a direct result of the UK tax changes cannot be fully restored by the end of this year. But I think that it does seem that they are confident that maybe some new entrants to the sector, perhaps ones with a with a wider international focus than largely focusing on the UK might be able to help here. So there could be another element of that that perhaps they're looking to attract some companies that are active in other jurisdictions and just sort of spread the revenue sources, I guess, in a way. We always talk about how important it is that regulators and policymakers discuss any changes or any updates to legislation with the industry because of course you want a healthy environment, a healthy business environment, not only for the business to thrive but also to protect the consumers and to generate jobs, to generate the tax money. So how will operators actually react to this or operators and stakeholders, how do they see the proposed changes and conditions? Do you think these reforms are favorable? to them? tracking this new story and from conversations with operators, the reaction is somewhat mixed. what you're seeing is that there is a commitment by the operators of the domicile in Gibraltar that they're not moving. They're remaining fixed in Gibraltar. There will be some transitions due to the tax impact. No one can avoid that. However, overall they do view kind of Gibraltar as their main hub. It's where they run operations and where they prefer to be chosen for taxed on us are reasons, right? In terms of the new government bill itself, again, this is moving back towards, I think it's more strategic for the Gibraltar government commission and the Gibraltar government itself. It tells you more about their vision. However, I think for the licenses is that they're just looking for a more sustainable domicile, a domicile that is actually strengthable by AML. It has kind of clear cut conditions on who can join. The days are kind of like free merchant for the industry are over. think that Gibraltar knows that if it wants big business, it hasn't tackled big licenses and big operations and gives them kind of the foundations. can move over. And while they tackle big licenses, we're tackling a very small, short, brief ad break. But we will be right back to discuss these updates to Gibraltar's regulatory landscape. And we're back with more iGaming Daily to continue discussing the gambling bill that's been discussed in Gibraltar. And you guys have covered this extensively. So why do you think this bill is being viewed as a new strategic platform for the Gibraltar government? The gambling bill is here to kind of redefine Gibraltar as a gambling hub, but also it will kind of redefine the terms of Gibraltar's regulatory relationship with the UK. Since 2005, the actually, well, 80 % of the businesses there have been licensed in the UK, in our UK facing. Gibraltar now knows that it's got to change up its regulatory mix and go for a much broader appeal and a much more international appeal. Hence, kind of amplifying uh its licensing more down the value chain of gambling. But I also think that you've got to look at the historical context of it. It's been a tricky decade in the relationship between the UK and Gibraltar. The first kind of headwinds were started off with the Brexit and Brexit negotiations. Obviously, she brought to being next to Spain. uh That has been very, you know, very tricky. I'm not I'm not going to speak about that on this podcast, but it's been difficult, to say the least. And also last year, it you know, it was very much kind of factored in in a kind of prolonged gambling review, but also the prolonged decision of the tax increase on gambling in which Gibraltar just thought um its concerns and its anxieties weren't listened to and that the UK government just increased taxes favorable to them and to their objectives. And what measures is Gibraltar actually taking to become more outward looking? And how does Sinposition's future licensing regime beyond the traditional B2C model? Okay, so you mentioned the significance of it expanding beyond the B2C model. As you say, that's quite an important element of it. They're wanting to expand the remit really of Gibraltar's gambling framework to factor B2B activity into this a lot more. That's going to include marketing services. We're going to see the creation of new license types as well. So obviously with different types of licenses issued for different B2B activities, assume. Obviously reflecting the diversity, I guess, of the different disciplines within this industry in 2026, which has grown quite a lot, I'd imagine, over the past 20 years. The kind of companies we will come into contact with on a daily basis, working on SBC media, firms across Sportsbook, iGaming, technology, you know, player account management and so on marketing like what I've mentioned. Kind of what Ted mentioned as well, I'd imagine more to earlier with crypto, we're seeing crypto having a bigger and bigger impact on the industry across a lot of different sectors. It's a, you know, a bit of a gray area. I say a bit of a gray area, quite a big massive gray area in a lot of jurisdictions. But, you know, these are all factors that are really reshaping the B2B dynamics of the industry and I think Gibraltar wants to obviously update its regulations to reflect that. This is something we've seen in other markets as well. I talked earlier about the fact that Gibraltar's laws and regulations and so on often do mirror that of the UK with it being a British overseas territory. We saw the UK Gandon Commission talk about how it was going to be monitoring B2B activity a lot more closely, especially with regards to the black market. I think Gibraltar is probably wanting to update its regulations to account that into its own activity as well. Yeah, in general, like we said earlier, the bill is really just looking to update Gibraltar's regulatory framework to the different conditions the local industry is now facing in 2026. And what about beyond 2026 because Gibraltar, Malta, all these specialist hubs have been very important in the past. And they remain to be somewhat important, of course, but more jurisdictions are updating their own frameworks, their own gambling laws. And so what is the long-term purpose of Gibraltar, of Malta and specialist hubs like this jurisdiction? What are we looking to? see from them in the long run. And also is this, you guys think that this might just be a tax play for Gibraltar or does it actually mean uh more than that? A couple of years back the secret was just said, this is a tax play, but I think kind of in the evolution of gaming, especially the hubs of Gibraltar and Malta who are, you know, let's get it right, tiny jurisdictions, but they have survived and they have proven the utility to a multi-billion global sector, thus they have survived. And I think that we're now, in 2026, we're far too down the line to then say, well, do we see kind of this shakeup happening? I think that Gibraltar Mortar will always have a role within the major tier one operators as a hub or a strategic presence, being for Europe. Obviously, as you see in Latin America, I guess as global gaming expands, there are kind of forces that forces that make you kind of enter new markets or to kind of domicile or open up offices like some Brazil or Argentina or Mexico. So that's another factor. However, you know, I think that you brought up also a reflective work the industry has undertaken over the 20 year period. where the industry is now and it's been to their benefit. It's a sector that's created jobs that's kind of enriched these jurisdictions for both of them. And they often go together, Chibor and Cremolka, I think kind of their vision is more outward, but also knowing that there is kind of a generation, they are kind of intertwined in the next generational phase of the industry. And looking ahead, of course, Ted, you... were dying to speak about Brexit and the fallout of Brexit and the Gibraltar-UK relationship. But how do you think this relationship between the UK and Gibraltar will develop? Because of course, Gibraltar remains a British overseas territory. So is this evolving into a more distant or a more strategic partnership? Fernando, that's a very good point to ask. If I could explain them better to our international audiences, I think we're now very much into that kind of frosty relationship you'd have with your cousin. But at the same time, think that's the best, what the UK and what how things have played out over the last 10 years. There is no doubt that the UK has undermined the position of Gibraltar and not only Gibraltar as in British overseas territory, she brought the and its relationships with other European jurisdictions, right? Brexit aside, I think that the UK has to be kind of more strategic and also has to recognize the importance of Gibraltar as an economic hub, not only for gaming, but also for other kind of high risk sectors, say, you know, services economies. And to actually being reflected in Gibraltar, it's that it is a jurisdiction that has increased with kind of the services industry of the UK. And I think that, you know, it's something that the British government cannot be back. Yeah, I mean, I think Ted's got point regarding the relationship there. I obviously, just said that I think that the new tax framework is really going to redefine this because Gibraltar is, and well, yeah, you know, as we've talked to today is looking at uh, ways to, that this industry can become more flexible and respond to challenges like this, which will obviously be quite a big financial burden for it. I'd say to be honest with you as well, looking beyond the relationship between Gibraltar and the UK, you know, we talked earlier about what, what might Gibraltar be trying to achieve with this? What might countries like Malta be trying to achieve as well? They really want to look at the, their stability as iGaming hubs as places that count the industry as a very important part of their economy. When you do have some other countries, other jurisdictions eyeing up em that status themselves, obviously Estonia being a big one. em We broke a story about Estonia and SBC News today and about the legislation they're pushing through to try and attract the industry to their country. There's obviously a lot of conversations about the prospects of crypto betting in Estonia as well. So think that's another reason why Gibraltar and maybe other jurisdictions like Malta and the Isle of Man might be taking another look at regulations as of late. They want to make sure that this remains stable and sustainable. Of course, this is a developing story as the relation still has some way to go in Gibraltar, but we will continue reporting on this and the most important stories around the iGaming and sports betting industry. all around the world. So make sure you are subscribed to all the SPC media newsletters and also follow iGamingDaily on social media and your preferred podcasting platform. And now already live, it's also the payment expert podcast. So you want to check that out. Of course, you can go to YouTube and find the host Louis Tompstedt joined by Kieran O'Connor and a very sharp dress, Colin Williams, discussing uh X-Money, CBDCs and the future of digital payments. make sure you check out the payment expert podcast, follow all SVC media content to keep up to date with the news around the world. Ted, Ted, thank you very much. Thank you very much Ania McDonald for producing this episode. I'm Fernando Nott and to our listeners out there, we'll see you in the next one. Goodbye.