About Us

The Gambling Division is part of the Ministry of Justice Trade and Industry and performs delegated functions on behalf of:

a) The Minister acting as Licensing Authority

and

b) The Gambling Commissioner who is the appointed industry regulator.

The Gambling Commissioner is also the supervisor for the gambling sector in respect of anti-money laundering, countering terrorist financing and proliferation financing.

The Gambling Division regulates both remote (online) and land based commercial gambling being conducted in or from Gibraltar. This includes approving local society and charitable lotteries (raffles) and other requests to conduct other occasional and non-licensed gambling activity, such as raffles taking place at local fetes or other social events.

The Gambling Division does not regulate the Government lottery which is the only cash lottery allowed in the jurisdiction.

The Gambling Division does not regulate "free prize draws" (which can be used by businesses for marketing purposes), but entry to the draw must be free (entry can be subject to a condition such as spending a certain amount of money in store or on particular goods and services). However, a business cannot offer a prize for an additional cash entry fee as this would constitute lottery activity.

A lottery means any scheme for distribution of prizes by chance or lot in which a simple majority of participants make a contribution in money or money's worth for the purposes of participation in the chances of lottery. This means that if a free prize route is offered alongside a paid entry route and the majority of consumers opt for the paid route then this would be classified as a lottery.

The Gambling Division carries out its' functions guided by the Gambling Regulatory Objectives:

a) The preservation of confidence in gambling markets

b) The protection of consumers, especially children, young persons and problem gamblers

c) The promotion of fair and responsible gambling

d) Preventing gambling being a source of crime, being associated with crime or being used to support or proliferate financial crime

e) The public interest of Gibraltar included (but not limited to) its' reputation and macro-economic interests

The principal functions of the Gambling Division are to carry out licensing functions (B2C, B2B, support services, holdco’s, software supplier approvals, change of control etc). The Gambling Division are also responsible for administering and collecting license fees and gambling duty.

The licensing and wider approval process involves carrying out due diligence on the identified owners and controllers of gambling businesses (ultimate beneficial owners). This includes the supply chain to ensure that only fit and proper persons are involved in the gambling sector.

In addition, the regulatory team carry out structured site visits to assess:

a) Compliance with the Proceeds of Crime Act and the wider regulatory framework

b) Compliance with obligations under the Gambling Act, particularly customer fairness and social responsibility obligations.

Please see the 'Complaints' section for our approach to dealing with customer complaints.