Sarah Gardner: Why the UK Gambling Commission Is ‘Difficult to Leave’

Sarah Gardner, the UK Gambling Commission’s interim chief executive, says the regulator has proven “difficult to leave” after nearly 17 years on staff, describing the sector she oversees as one that constantly demands new ways of thinking about consumer protection versus personal freedom.

Gardner stepped into the interim CEO role following the February departure of former chief Andrew Rhodes, and she now leads a Commission navigating one of its most turbulent stretches of leadership change in years. Speaking to iGB’s sister publication GGB, she reflected candidly on why she has stayed through nearly every senior post at the regulator rather than moving on.

A “Gambling Commission Lifer” on Balancing Two Sides

Gardner jokingly calls herself a “Gambling Commission lifer,” and her explanation for the longevity centers on the tension inherent in gambling regulation itself. “From a regulatory standpoint it’s a really interesting sector because you’re really trying to strike the right balance between enabling people to enjoy what they enjoy doing in their leisure time, while making sure there are protections for those that need it,” she said. “It’s why I’ve never left. [In this time] I’ve done most of the jobs actually around the senior table at the Commission.”

She added that the Commission has “proved quite difficult to leave,” noting there is “always a new challenge.” Someone once described gambling regulation to her as “utterly seductive,” she said — a characterization she does not fully embrace, though she agrees it “certainly keeps you really interested.”

Gardner said her approach going forward is to push the Commission toward more creative solutions rather than defaulting to heavier-handed enforcement. “The approach I’m trying to foster more and more at the Commission [is to be] more creative and not always reach for the blunt instrument,” she explained.

Leadership Turnover and a Thankless Job

The comments arrive amid a broader reshuffle atop the Commission. Director of policy Tim Miller announced in June that he would leave after ten years with the regulator, with part of his responsibilities set to transfer to Sarah Fox, a senior civil servant joining from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport in September. Combined with Rhodes’ exit, the Commission’s senior table has seen significant turnover in 2026.

Gardner did not shy away from describing the difficulty of the role itself. “Regulation can be a pretty thankless task because you can never please all the people,” she said. “I can’t think of any announcement I’ve ever made where I haven’t had one half of the debate saying: ‘oh that doesn’t go far enough.’ And the other half saying: ‘oh, it might go too far.’ That can actually be a bit of an indicator that you’re broadly in the right place.”

That dynamic has played out most visibly around the Commission’s affordability checks, formally known as financial risk assessments. A 2025 pilot flagged high-spending players at several tier-one operators for additional credit checks by independent agencies, and the Commission confirmed in July that the measure would roll out via a phased, age-based approach to player losses. The decision drew pushback from operators, the horse racing industry, and politicians alike.

Gardner defended the policy as an example of the balancing act she describes as central to her job. “What we’re currently doing on financial risk assessments, controversial though that it is, is a really good example of striking a balance [between player enjoyment and consumer protection] because that is about finding a more sophisticated way than currently exists to hone in on the consumers who actually need the support,” she said, adding that a more targeted approach avoids asking “a much larger sample of consumers for [additional] documents, which strikes me as frankly too intrusive for what’s meant to be a leisure activity.”

What It Means for the Industry

Gardner’s remarks offer a rare glimpse into the regulator’s internal thinking at a moment when UK operators are still adjusting to the aftershocks of the Gambling Act review and white paper reforms. With affordability checks now moving toward implementation and fresh faces set to join the leadership team this fall, how the Commission balances “creative” regulation against enforcement pressure will shape the operating environment for sportsbooks and online casinos serving UK bettors in the months ahead. For US readers watching how regulators approach affordability and player protection, the debate mirrors questions increasingly raised around legal sports betting markets stateside as states weigh their own consumer-protection frameworks.