On 2 September 2026, the Gambling Commission made important updates to its regulatory returns guidance (the “Guidance”) affecting the basis on which gambling software licensees must report figures in their regulatory returns.

To our knowledge, the Gambling Commission did not communicate the changes to the Guidance before the deadline for submitting Q2 regulatory returns (28 October) and, at the time of writing, has still not done so.

We understand that the Gambling Commission considered that the threshold for consulting licensees before updating the Guidance had not been met, and that it intends to communicate the updates to licensees and update eServices in due course.

We take this opportunity to remind licensees of their obligation to submit timely and accurate regulatory returns under licence condition 15.3.1.

What are the updates to the Guidance?

Following the updates, gambling software licensees must now report income from the supply of gambling software in their regulatory returns based on “value of gross annual sales accrued” rather than “total income received”, as previously set out in the Guidance. This aligns with regulation 2(3)(a)(ii) of The Gambling Levy Regulations 2025, which defines the “leviable amount” as:

amounts (exclusive of value added tax) that otherwise accrue during the levy period to the holder of the operating licence directly in connection with activities authorised by the licence…

This mirrors the language of regulation 3 of the Gambling (Operating Licence and Single-Machine Permit Fees) Regulations 2017, which sets out the basis for calculating gambling software fee categories.

Definition of “accrue”  

The Gambling Commission defines “accrue” on its website as: “if a licensee is accruing money or money’s worth from the sale of goods and services authorised by their operating licence, then the amount of that money or money’s worth would be brought into account”.

For gambling software licensees, this means the value of gross annual sales that have been earned but not yet paid must also be reported.

Next steps

We strongly encourage gambling software licensees to review the basis on which they report figures in their regulatory returns, particularly where they form part of a wider group, and to consider the impact the changes to the Guidance may have on the reporting of intra-company revenue arrangements.  This may have consequences for annual fees and statutory levy payments.

We also recommend that licensees review the updated Guidance and monitor future changes to eServices.

Please get in touch if you have any questions about the updates to the Guidance, regulatory returns reporting generally, or the application of the Guidance to intra-company revenue arrangements.