Gibraltar Gambling Act 2025: Marketing Activity Requiring a Gaming Operator Support Services Licence

With the Bill to repeal the Gambling Act 2005 and establish the new Gibraltar Gambling Act 2025 (the “New Act”) now published, a number of regulatory changes are set to be implemented shortly. In this segment, we outline a new category of licence: The Gaming Operators Support Services licence ("GOSS Licence") and in particular, GOSS Licences applicable to marketing companies. 

Regulated Activity

The New Act will, for the first time, regulate the provision of certain gambling support services conducted from Gibraltar, significantly widening the existing regulatory scope. 

The New Act classifies the following as regulated activity:

“Conducting, managing, arranging, booking, facilitating or providing advertising or marketing services for gambling, wherever in the world the gambling takes place, except for exempt advertising or marketing”. 

A common arrangement which would be caught by this definition is where an international gambling group has set up a Gibraltar-incorporated marketing company as part of a cross-jurisdictional indirect tax planning strategy. 

Exempt Advertising or Marketing

Despite the significant scope of the GOSS Licence, the New Act explicitly exempts situations where the individual conducting the marketing services is in the business of advertising or marketing intended primarily for an audience in Gibraltar. 

Ministerial Discretion

It is important to note that there will be a general prohibition to carry out any marketing services or related support services without a GOSS Licence. The effect is that marketing activity/support services which are currently unregulated will become regulated upon the adoption of the New Act, which is expected on 1st October 2025, and will only be permissible if carried out by a licence holder. 

Having marketing substance or management and control of marketing activity alone in Gibraltar will not create a right or presumption to be granted a GOSS Licence. Unless Ministerial discretion is given to issue a GOSS Licence in situations where the Minister is satisfied that the public interest (including the good reputation of Gibraltar) will not be prejudiced or threatened by the granting of such a licence, no such licence will be issued. 

The discretion will be based on a number of factors including the history of the entity in Gibraltar in respect of their economic contribution, substance and tax levels, the size of the Gibraltar entity relative to the size and scale of the wider group and confirmation that the relevant indirect tax authorities have reviewed the arrangement. 

Whilst the final licence and application fees have not been published, a GOSS Licence is expected to have an annual licence fee of c£50,000. 

An alternative approach for some companies impacted by this change would be to relocate part of their B2C or B2B functionality to Gibraltar and increase their substance locally in order to satisfy the requirements of a Gibraltar B2C or B2B licence. 

The Impact on Existing Licensees

The New Act confirms that such marketing and advertising activity will be covered by an existing B2C or B2B licence, which means that group marketing functions can be conducted under the auspices of a B2C or B2B licence. This will allow for gaming and marketing activity to be covered under a single licence, streamlining costs and licensing arrangements within a group. 

Next Steps

If you are currently conducting marketing or ancillary gambling services and would like to know the best way to move forward in light of the New Act, we advise that you contact our team:

Andrew Montegriffo, Partner

Louise Federico, Partner

Anna Buhler, Associate