Britain Moves to Stop Bookmakers Taking Bets on Powerball

The UK government wants to stop betting firms taking bets on Powerball, the US draw that became a National Lottery game in July. The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) opened a consultation on September 23, and it closes at 23:59 on 4 November 2026.

The proposal is narrow. Operators licensed under the Gambling Act 2005 would be barred from offering bets on the outcome of Powerball draws to customers in Great Britain, which would put the game on the same footing as every other National Lottery draw. Allwyn UK, the National Lottery operator, added Powerball to its portfolio on 21 July 2026.

What Betting on a Lottery Actually Means

There are two ways to play a lottery draw, and most people only know one of them. You can buy a ticket, which puts you in the actual draw. Or you can place a bet with a bookmaker on which numbers will come up. The bookmaker takes your stake, pays out from its own money if you win, and has nothing to do with the lottery itself.

DCMS says a small number of gambling operators have offered UK customers bets on the US Powerball draw for some time. Those customers never buy a ticket. The consultation says they are placing a bet “on the outcome of the draw” instead. It also notes these bets are “frequently sold below the retail price of an official ticket,” and there’s no requirement for the bookmaker to give any of the money to good causes.

Why the Law Missed Powerball

Section 95 of the Gambling Act 2005 already bans this for the National Lottery. It attaches a condition to general betting, pool betting and betting intermediary operating licenses that nothing may be done in reliance on the license “in relation to a bet on the outcome of a lottery which forms part of the National Lottery,” according to the text of the Act. That covers Lotto, EuroMillions and Thunderball.

However, because the underlying draw for Powerball is administered in the United States by the Multi-State Lottery Association (MUSL), third-party betting firms continued taking synthetic bets on the US draw outcomes. When Allwyn UK launched official UK ticket sales in July 2026 under its 4th National Lottery Licence, dual markets emerged simultaneously: official ticket participation funding public causes versus commercial betting on the same draw numbers.

Good Causes Money Is the Real Target

Vicky Foxcroft, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State whose brief covers gambling, wrote the consultation’s foreword. She said betting on the draws “is contrary to the spirit and intention of Section 95, which seeks to preserve the distinction between betting and the National Lottery.” The ban, she wrote, “will aim to remove risks of customer confusion for players,” and protect the money that goes to good causes.

The money explains the urgency. DCMS says the National Lottery raises around £1.8 billion a year for good causes, with roughly 23% of sales going to them, and has generated over £53 billion for more than 680,000 projects since 1994. Allwyn expects Powerball alone to raise an extra £1 billion for good causes over the next 5 years, part of its aim to reach £60 million a week by 2034.

EuroMillions Set the Precedent

The proposed intervention directly mirrors regulatory action taken by DCMS in 2018 regarding EuroMillions. Following a 2014 Call for Evidence, the government determined that voluntary operator codes and Gambling Commission advice failed to mitigate consumer confusion surrounding non-UK EuroMillions draws.

Rather than attempting to amend primary legislation under Section 95, DCMS plans to invoke Section 78(1) of the Gambling Act 2005. This allows the Secretary of State to attach a mandatory general licence condition to all relevant betting operating licences enforced by the Gambling Commission (UKGC).

One of Several Moves on Gambling

The consultation lands during a busy stretch for gambling policy. On 11 August, Prime Minister Andy Burnham announced plans to revoke the Gambling Act’s “Aim to Permit” rule, which limits councils’ ability to refuse new betting shops. The Gambling Commission’s annual figures, published on September 17, counted 5,617 betting shops in Great Britain, down 3.6%, in a market worth £17.5 billion including lotteries.

The same week, a House of Lords committee recommended a full ban on gambling advertising as the most effective way to reduce gambling harm. The Powerball proposal is far smaller than either, and it only asks one question of bookmakers: should a game run for good causes carry a betting market beside it?

The consultation runs for 6 weeks, is open only to people aged 18 or over, and asks operators what share of their gross gambling yield comes from Powerball bets. DCMS admits it lacks up-to-date evidence on how many bettors would switch to buying a real ticket. That’s the number the whole case rests on.