The UK Gambling Commission has begun formal consultations on a potential pathway to allow cryptocurrency as a consumer payment method in licensed gambling, executive director Tim Miller announced at the Betting and Gaming Council’s Annual General Meeting on 26 February 2026.
Miller confirmed he has asked the Commission’s Industry Forum to assess how crypto payments could be progressed “sensibly and in line with the licensing objectives,” marking the first concrete institutional step toward reversing the current prohibition on crypto-based gambling transactions for licensed UK operators.
Illegal Market Demand Drives Policy Shift
The decision to open the question formally follows the Commission’s own illegal market research, which identified cryptocurrency as one of the two most common searches driving British consumers toward unlicensed gambling sites. Miller framed the issue as a consumer protection problem as much as a regulatory one.
“Our illegal markets research also gives us evidence that crypto is one of the two biggest searches that lead British gamblers to illegal sites.”
The Commission’s position has shifted notably since November 2025, when then-Chief Executive Andrew Rhodes compressed the crypto assessment timeline from five years to 12 to 24 months, citing the growing cohort of under-40 consumers who use digital assets as their primary financial instruments. Miller’s BGC speech moves beyond assessment into active exploration of implementation.
That earlier review had identified AML compliance and source-of-funds verification as the central obstacles to integration, with cryptocurrency transactions lacking the audit trail mechanisms available through traditional banking infrastructure. Miller acknowledged those challenges remain but said the regulatory context has materially changed.
FCA Cryptoasset Regime Changes the Calculation
The shift in stance is partly driven by the UK government’s progress on broader crypto regulation. In December 2025, the government laid the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Cryptoassets) Regulations 2025 before Parliament. Subject to approval, the FCA’s new cryptoasset regulatory regime is expected to come into force on 25 October 2027, bringing cryptoassets within the FCA’s formal authorisation framework.
Miller said this progression changes the picture for gambling regulation. Firms wishing to undertake cryptoasset-regulated activities will need FCA authorisation under FSMA before the regime commences, creating a compliance structure the Commission can potentially work alongside rather than around.
“These steps, progressing the FCA’s roadmap, does change the picture,” Miller said, adding that consumer appetite for crypto payments is growing and the Commission now wants to “start looking at what the potential path forward would be.”
No Timeline, But a Change in Direction
Miller was careful to set no deadlines. The Industry Forum consultation is a first step, not a commitment to a specific implementation window. The Commission’s language is exploratory: “the art of the possible rather than starting from a position of finding all the reasons not to innovate.”
The framing is significant. For an organisation that had treated crypto payments as a compliance problem to be deferred, positioning the topic as an innovation opportunity represents a directional change. Miller explicitly connected consumer-facing innovation to illegal market suppression, arguing that a “vibrant, well regulated British gambling industry” with a compelling licensed offer is itself a consumer protection tool.
The speech came against a backdrop of broader institutional transition. Andrew Rhodes, who had led the Commission’s cautious initial engagement with the crypto question, announced his departure earlier this month, with his last day set for 30 April 2026. Miller confirmed the Board is working on an interim chief executive appointment process.
Regulatory Context: Fees, Illegal Market, and Post-Reform Stability
The crypto discussion sits within a wider set of themes Miller addressed at the BGC AGM. The Commission is seeking a fee increase that would raise its total income as a proportion of industry GGY from 0.21% to 0.28%, with a DCMS consultation running until 29 March 2026. The additional income would partly fund a strategic review of “the impact, efficiency and burden of current regulatory requirements.”
Miller also confirmed the Commission expects to complete its Gambling Act Review implementation role, after which it intends a period of regulatory stability before any further reform cycle. That stability, in his framing, creates the conditions for consumer-facing innovation conversations. The UKGC has previously published a final report on the illegal online gambling market, providing the evidential basis for the illegal market suppression strategy Miller referenced throughout his speech.
The FCA cryptoasset regime timeline of October 2027 gives a natural horizon against which the Commission’s Industry Forum work will need to produce conclusions if crypto gambling payments are to launch in any proximity to regulated financial infrastructure coming online. The Commission issued £18m in penalties during 2025, a compliance enforcement record that Miller said demonstrates the regulator’s approach to licensing standards has not softened even as it opens space for innovation discussions.
Source: UK Gambling Commission
