A law change allowing many UK land-based casinos to install four times the number of high-jackpot “B1” machines has been challenged by a new report commissioned by the Campaign for Fairer Gambling.

From 22 July 2025, many casinos can increase the number of B1 machines from 20 to 80 per venue.

The Landman Economics report argues by agreeing to this the UK government has ignored its own official statistics and instead listened more to the UK’s trade lobby group, the Betting and Gaming Council (BGC).

The below is from a 21 July report in the Times newspaper, UK:

The new law was first proposed by the Conservative government but was passed by Labour in June.

The Landman Economics report concluded: “The Labour Party’s 2024 election manifesto ‘committed to reducing gambling-related harms’ but that is incompatible with the changes to casino gaming regulations as they have been implemented.”

Derek Webb, founder of the Campaign for Fairer Gambling, said:

“Labour is ignoring the official statistics which show how harmful slot machines are.

“There are already more than 200,000 slot machines in UK gambling premises. A new Gambling Act is now needed to give more power to local authorities to control slots gambling.”

In response to the Times article, the BGC claimed that the changes would “create 1,750 new jobs and £80 million in additional tax revenue.”

A few thousand B3 machines cannot possibly create that many jobs, further evidence that BGC representations are unreliable. Money spent anywhere else in the economy would also generate more additional tax revenue and jobs than if spent on slot machines.

“The totality of harm is greater for online slots than land-based,” says Derek Webb.

“But the greatest proportion of land-based slots harm is from the more than 50,000 B3 machines in betting shops, arcades and bingo halls.

“Lax oversight by the Gambling Commission is allowing abuse of B3 regulations.

“It was a poor decision by Labour to expand B1 casino machines before resolving all the B3 issues.”

You can read the full Landman Economics report here.