The UK government has opened a consultation on plans to stop licensed betting operators from offering wagers on Powerball draws, closing a regulatory gap created when the US lottery game joined the National Lottery this summer.
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) launched the six-week consultation on 23 September, with responses accepted until 23:59 on 4 November 2026. The proposed restriction would bring Powerball closer to the treatment of established National Lottery draw games including Lotto, EuroMillions and Thunderball.
Allwyn UK introduced Powerball to the National Lottery portfolio on 21 July after receiving approval from the Gambling Commission. It marked the first time the US game had officially been made available outside the United States. Allwyn expects the product to generate an additional £1bn for National Lottery good causes over its first five years.
Regulatory gap allows parallel Powerball bets
Section 95 of the Gambling Act 2005 prevents betting licence holders from taking wagers on lotteries that form part of the National Lottery. However, the restriction does not currently capture Powerball because the underlying draw remains the US Powerball lottery rather than a draw operated directly as part of the UK National Lottery.
As a result, customers can currently buy an official National Lottery Powerball entry while also placing bets with third-party gambling operators on the outcome of the same US draw. DCMS said a small number of operators had already been offering such products before Powerball’s official UK launch.
The government argues that allowing both products could cause customers to mistake a bookmaker’s Powerball wager for participation in the National Lottery. It also raised concerns about the effect on good-cause funding, noting that roughly 23% of National Lottery sales supports arts, heritage, sport and community projects, while third-party betting operators have no equivalent requirement. The National Lottery currently generates around £1.8bn annually for good causes.
New condition would target Powerball specifically
Rather than amending the general ban on National Lottery betting, the government proposes using Section 78(1) of the Gambling Act to introduce a licence condition preventing relevant operators from taking Powerball bets from consumers in Great Britain.
The condition would apply to general betting, pool betting and betting intermediary operating licences. Operators would remain free to offer bets on unrelated overseas lotteries, such as the Irish Lotto.
The approach follows the precedent established for EuroMillions in 2018, when betting on non-UK versions of EuroMillions draws was prohibited to maintain a distinction between bookmaker products and participation in the National Lottery.
DCMS also considered voluntary industry measures, requiring betting operators to contribute to good causes and introducing a broader ban on betting on overseas lotteries. It concluded that those options would either be less effective or disproportionately restrictive.
The consultation will gather evidence from betting and lottery companies, affected operators, players and other interested parties before the government determines whether to proceed with the new licence condition.