Politicians are split in the Isle of Man as the crown dependency moves to update its gambling policy.
Members of the House of Keys, the island’s parliament, are currently considering legislation that will reform the Isle of Man’s current set of gambling legislation, some of which dates back to 1984.
According to the Gambling Supervision Commission (GSC), the heart of the Gambling Acts (Miscellaneous Amendment) Bill 2025 aims to “enhance and harmonise” the GSC’s regulatory powers across the legislative framework.
This includes giving the GSC greater inspection and investigation powers, as well as stricter AML oversight and expanded fit and proper tests for stakeholders working on the island.
However, the MHK for Glenfaba and Peel, Kate Lord-Brennan, warned politicians failed to listen to the gambling industry, and that “harmful over-regulation” would have a significant impact on the island’s economy.
“We should never railroad something that could significantly damage a sector of our economy,” she said.
Lord-Brennan attempted to halt the progress of the bill by referring it to a committee to report back in April. However, her efforts were ultimately fruitless as members voted to move the legislation into the clauses stage, where any amendments will now be considered.
Growing AML concerns
Waves of momentum are shifting in the direction of heightened regulatory oversight across similar European markets.
In Gibraltar, politicians are currently considering the Gibraltar Gambling Bill 2025, which is designed to modernise regulation, encourage innovation and strengthen market resilience, including greater licensing criteria.
For both jurisdictions, new legislation focuses on a wider evaluation of their financial controls and framework related to combating money laundering and terrorist financing. In particular, Gibraltar is still working towards implementing the recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force after it successfully applied to be removed from the organisation’s grey list in 2024.
If the bill is passed by politicians in the Isle of Man, the changes are expected to be implemented mid-way through 2026 as it prepares for its upcoming Moneyval inspection, a ten-yearly peer-reviewed assessment of a jurisdiction’s financial controls.
In the past year, the GSC was forced to intervene and hand Celton Manx, the parent company of SBOTOP, a penalty of £3,937,500 for AML failures.
The GSC found that the company lacked evidence of proper risk assessments, ongoing customer monitoring, enhanced due diligence and sufficient identity verification procedures, as well as falling short when it comes to handling suspicious activity.
As such, authorities will be keen to avoid similar problems arising ahead of the key inspection period by MONEYVAL.
