Kirsty Caldwell to Step in as Interim Industry Forum Chair

British regulator the Gambling Commission has announced the appointment of industry executive Kirsty Caldwell as its Interim Chair of the Industry Forum

Caldwell has been a member of the forum since March 2024, and will take over the role of Chair on an interim basis while there is an ongoing recruitment process to appoint a new permanent Chair, who will replace Nick Rust OBE. Rust’s term as chair ended in November 2025, after two years at the helm.

Strong industry background

Caldwell has an extensive background in both gaming and compliance. Caldwell worked for operator William Hill from 2010 to 2018, in a range of roles including Compliance & Regulatory Affairs Officer, Compliance & Regulatory Affairs Manager and Head of Compliance. Caldwell then served as VP Compliance for Addison Global, the operator of MoPlay, from 2018 to 2019, before founding consultancy Betsmart Consulting.

Caldwell said:

"I am delighted to be taking on this role. I remain fully committed to building a healthy, respected gambling sector, and cooperation and communication between regulator and industry is key to achieving this.

"We may not get it right every time, but the important thing is we learn from our mistakes, we keep talking and we keep moving forwards.”

What is the Industry Forum?

The Industry Forum was established in 2023, aiming to provide the Commission with further insight into the views of operators. It is made up of around 10 members who represent the wide spectrum of the industry.

The forum was set up with the aim of sharing industry views on areas a such as account management, consultations and the Commission’s data programme.

The forum was set up in the same year that the Gambling White Paper was published, which acted as one of the most significant documents in the history of gambling legislation in the UK, setting out more than 60 proposals to update the country’s gambling laws.

Among the terms recommended were affordability checks, in an attempt to protect players spending a certain amount within a certain timeframe, improved identification checks, a statutory levy, and a cap on the maximum stakes on online slots at £5 for older adults and £2 for younger adults. With this in mind, it was timely for operators to get their views across to the Commission ahead of such significant changes.

The forum sits alongside a number of stakeholder initiatives and advisory groups that support the forum to ensure it is evidence-led. This includes the Lived Experience Advisory Panel, the Advisory Board for Safer Gambling and the Digital Advisory Panel.

Tougher times ahead for operators

Aside from the implementation of the White Paper, the forum has also been in place at a time where there has been plenty of industry frustration with planned tax increases.

In the November Budget, Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced that from April 2026, remote gaming duty, paid on online casino bets, will increase from 21% to 40% of gross profit. Then, in April 2027, general betting duty, paid on online sports bets, will go up from 15% to 25% of gross profit.

The Betting and Gaming Council (BGC), which represents more than 90% of retail betting shops, online betting and gaming operators, casinos and bingo operators, warned earlier this week that this leaves the industry in a dangerous position.

Grainne Hurst, BGC CEO, referenced analysis from Frontier Economics which shows up to 1.5 million people a year in Great Britain are already gambling on unlicensed sites, staking up to £4.3 billion a year on the black market.