The UK government has appointed Ruth Evans as chair of the Gambling Commission. She will take up the post on 30 September for a five-year term, ending a long stretch of interim leadership at the regulator’s top job. By then, Charles Counsell will have been interim chair for just under 20 months, more than twice the nine months originally set out after Marcus Boyle said in November 2024 that he would step down at the end of January.
The chair is appointed by the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport under the Gambling Act 2005, rather than by the commission itself. The Gambling Commission is the non-departmental public body that regulates commercial gambling in Great Britain, and the public appointment notice says its sector has an annualised UK gross gambling yield of £15.6bn. Its licensing objectives are to keep crime out of gambling, ensure gambling is fair and open, and protect children and vulnerable people from being harmed or exploited.
According to the government announcement, Evans is a regulatory figure and consumer champion, best known as chair of Stop Scams UK. Her previous roles include chair of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, the first chair of the Bar Standards Board, nine years as a lay member of the General Medical Council where she chaired its Standards and Ethics Committee, and a non-executive directorship at the Serious Fraud Office. In 2018, she also chaired the steering group behind a voluntary code designed to reimburse victims of authorised push payment scams.
The appointment comes as the commission continues work with DCMS on the Gambling Act Review White Paper, High stakes: gambling reform for the digital age. The public appointment page says the chair must lead the commissioners to deliver statutory objectives, support and hold the executive to account, encourage propriety and efficient use of resources, and lead annual appraisals. It also lists priorities that include gambling reform, consumer protection, anti-money laundering, illegal gambling and delivery of the fourth National Lottery licence.
Evans said the role is more important than ever in keeping gambling fair, safe and crime-free, and argued that better outcomes come from collaboration between regulators, industry and the technology sector. The commission said her appointment follows Counsell’s interim tenure after Boyle’s departure in January 2025. Evans is the first of the regulator’s senior vacancies to be filled permanently, while Sarah Gardner remains acting chief executive after Andrew Rhodes left on 30 April.
