UK Gambling Commission Explores Path for Cryptocurrency Payments

The Executive Director of the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC), Tim Miller, said in a speech that they are exploring how they can “sensibly and in line with the licensing objectives” bring cryptocurrency payments to gambling sites licensed in the United Kingdom.

The remarks were made during a speech at the Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) Annual General Meeting on Thursday, 26 February, during which he highlighted how the UKGC is expanding its efforts to tackle illegal gambling in the United Kingdom.

He noted the “growing appetite we see from punters” for gambling with cryptocurrency.

“Our illegal markets research also gives us evidence that crypto is one of the two biggest searches that lead British gamblers to illegal sites.”

Consequently, he has asked the Industry Forum to look at how this could be “progressed sensibly”, exploring how cryptocurrencies could be accommodated at UK-licensed gambling sites.

While Miller gave no timeline or dates for this research and potential adoption of cryptocurrency, he detailed the progress of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Cryptoassets) Regulations 2025. This was laid before Parliament in December 2025. If passed, the new cryptoasset regime would come into force on 25 October 2027.

These regulations would officially bring cryptoassets under the regulatory remit of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Having the FCA authorize and oversee crypto firms provides the foundational security and anti-money laundering framework that the UKGC requires to safely consider allowing crypto as a legal payment method.

Like in many countries, there are currently no licensed cryptocurrency gambling sites in the UK.

Yet these sites are popular in the United Kingdom, with players accessing casinos that do not geo-block UK residents, such as no-KYC casinos, or using VPNs to circumvent blocks.

At the same time, regulations around the world are beginning to loosen up when it comes to gambling with cryptocurrency. This week, Stake launched its new Danish site, Stake.dk, after receiving a 5-year gambling license from the Danish Gambling Authority.

In the United States, the Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), Michael Selig, emphatically backed prediction markets, writing in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, “event contracts are ‘swaps’—legitimate financial derivatives that allow Americans to hedge real-world risks and provide the public with a vital check on our news media.”

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