The UK Gambling Commission has published its annual statistics on the work of local licensing authorities during the 2025/26 reporting period. The release covers the responsibilities carried out by local authorities under the Gambling Act 2005 and provides a national view of activity at premises level across Great Britain.
The publication is important because local authorities are the part of the regulatory system that operates closest to physical gambling venues. Their work includes premises licensing, inspections, compliance activity and the handling of local gambling issues. The annual dataset gives policymakers, operators and researchers a way to track how that activity changes over time.
What the Annual Dataset Covers
The Commission’s local-authority statistics sit alongside its national licensing and enforcement work. They are designed to show how councils perform duties assigned to them by the Gambling Act 2005, rather than to measure online gambling activity or the financial performance of commercial operators.
That distinction matters. A premises licence is linked to a specific location and allows the regulator to consider how gambling activity fits within a local area. Gaming-machine permits and related permissions also sit within a land-based framework, where councils can assess compliance through inspections and local information.
Why Local Licensing Activity Matters
Local licensing authorities can see issues that may not be visible from national data alone. Their officers understand the location of premises, nearby community concerns and the operating history of venues. That makes their work central to the practical enforcement of licensing objectives.
For operators, the statistics are a reminder that compliance is not only a relationship with the national Commission. Businesses must also maintain accurate premises arrangements, cooperate with inspections and ensure that local permissions match the gambling activity actually taking place.
The Value of Year-on-Year Comparison
The main analytical use of the 2025/26 release will be comparison with previous editions. Changes in inspections, compliance events, premises activity or permit numbers may indicate shifts in local priorities, changes in the estate of gambling venues or differences in how authorities report their work.
Those comparisons need to be read carefully. A higher number of recorded activities does not automatically mean that gambling risk increased, just as a lower figure does not necessarily mean that oversight weakened. Reporting coverage, local enforcement priorities and changes in the number of active premises can all affect the result.
A Land-Based Snapshot
The publication offers a useful snapshot of the land-based sector at a time when much industry attention is directed toward online regulation. Betting shops, adult gaming centres, bingo venues, clubs and other premises still operate within a local licensing environment that requires continuing oversight.
For communities, the value of the data is transparency. It shows that local authorities have a defined role in supervising gambling premises and gives the public a reference point for understanding how that role is being delivered across Great Britain.
What to Watch Next
The next step for analysts will be to examine the underlying tables and compare them with the preceding year’s data. That should reveal whether the number of reported inspections and compliance activities moved materially and whether patterns differ between types of local authority.
Operators can use the release as a prompt to review their own premises records and local relationships. The figures do not replace a venue-level compliance review, but they show the wider regulatory environment in which each premises licence operates.
Bottom Line
The 2025/26 local licensing statistics put council-level gambling oversight back in focus. They provide an official record of activity under the Gambling Act 2005 and create a baseline for measuring how local supervision develops.
The significance of the release is therefore practical rather than sensational: it helps show how premises licensing, inspections and local compliance work together to support the UK’s land-based gambling framework.
Source: UK Gambling Commission
