Northern Ireland’s Department for Communities will not bring forward a comprehensive rewrite of gambling legislation, Communities Minister Gordon Lyons told the Assembly on Sept. 29. The immediate priority is to assess whether the Betting, Gaming, Lotteries and Amusements (Amendment) Act (Northern Ireland) 2022 met its objectives, including stronger consumer protection and action on gambling-related harm.
The intervention came in response to a question from Sinn Féin MLA Philip McGuigan on introducing effective gambling laws at the start of the next Assembly mandate. Gambling.com reported that the department’s review will examine the outcome of reforms that had been described as the first phase of a broader review. The Institute of Licensing said its findings are expected to inform any later decision on wider legislation.
Northern Ireland’s regime therefore continues to rest primarily on the Betting, Gaming, Lotteries and Amusements (Northern Ireland) Order 1985, as amended in 2022. The older Order governs land-based bookmakers, betting at tracks, bingo-club gaming, gaming machines, certain amusements with prizes and lotteries other than the National Lottery. An Assembly research briefing concluded that it has not kept pace with online gambling services or their effects on gambling-related harm.
The 2022 Act introduced an offence for inviting under-18s to play gaming machines, updated cheating offences and empowered the department to issue operator codes of practice. It also created regulation-making powers for a levy on land-based gambling operations to support people experiencing harm, though that levy has not been brought into operation. The Act includes provisions on licensed-office opening on Sundays and Good Friday, bingo clubs, lotteries, gambling contracts and codes of practice.
The Assembly briefing noted that the 2022 changes did not create Northern Ireland-specific rules for online or remote gambling because of the scale of work required, with the issue intended for a second stage of reform. Northern Ireland also has no single independent gambling regulator: responsibilities are divided among courts, local councils, the Department for Communities and the Police Service of Northern Ireland. The Gambling Commission’s statutory remit primarily covers Great Britain.
Pressure for a different model has persisted. A 2020 consultation received 382 responses, with 93% supporting a Northern Ireland gambling regulator; among supporters, 61% preferred an independent body. An all-party group inquiry into gambling-related harm made 57 recommendations in January 2025, including formally treating gambling as a public-health issue and banning gambling advertising from 5:30am to 9pm.
A consultation on an initial gambling code of practice ran in late 2024, but the code had not been published at the time of the minister’s comments.
