The government of the Isle of Man has reiterated its commitment to maintaining the betting and gaming industry as one of the core segments of its economy that will undertake significant adjustments in 2026.

A statement issued this week by Chief Minister of the Isle of Man, Alfred Cannan, mapped out some key priorities for the Crown Dependency‘s approach to the governance of iGaming licences.

Plans include increasing one-to-one engagement with licences, coming at a time of significant regulatory and financial change brought on by generational judgements of the UK Gambling Act review and the Autumn Statement of 2025.

The government intends to kickstart its renewed industry engagement campaign next week at the ICE trade show in Barcelona (19-21 January), where IoM teams will be exhibiting.

Canaan remarked: ‘For more than two decades, iGaming has been an important and successful sector for the Isle of Man’s economy and community, offering a robust, transparent and responsive regulatory environment.”

“iGaming remains just as important today as it will be in the future,” he asserted.

IoM’s place in iGaming’s new order

As Cannan mentioned, the Isle of Man is one of Europe and the world’s oldest iGaming hubs with a long international reach. Various companies are headquartered on and/or domiciled on the island, overseen by the Gambling Supervision Commission (GSC).

The Isle of Man government’s recommitment to the iGaming space comes at, as mentioned, above, a time of significant change for the global iGaming sector around regulations, new market launches, and new tax regimes.

For the Isle of Man, some of the most significant changes come in the UK, a key market for many of the companies domiciled and licensed on the island, such as LSE gamblng group Entain Plc. A new tax framework is coming into effect this year which will have a big impact on many of the island’s iGaming residents.

As well as this, the UK is seeing renewed pushes from MPs for another review of gambling legislation and regulations, with a particular focus on the retail sector. This comes despite the recommendations of the 2020-2023 Gambling Act review still being adopted.

More scrutiny over UK iGaming may also lead to further examination of some of the companies domiciled on the Isle of Man, particularly overseas ones. Some of these were cast into the public spotlight last year when the TGP Europe white label company surrendered its UKGC and IoM operating licences.

Further afield, new tax regimes are coming into effect in the Netherlands, France and Brazil, among other markets. For Isle of Man companies with a stake in the US, the emergence of prediction markets and the potential challenge these pose to traditional betting operators may also be high on the agenda for 2026.

Lastly, for the Isle of Man government itself, the island is not alone as an iGaming hub. While it has held this status for over two decades, so have Malta and Gibraltar, and now more countries are considering doing the same, potentially presenting new competition – Estonia and the UAE being the prime examples.

The challenges of the running and regulating a betting and iGaming market have not been lost on the government, however, with Cannan asserting that the government has been responding to changing dynamics over the past few years.

“In the face of a more complex and challenging global environment in recent years, government has invested significantly in strengthening our understanding of risk and ensuring we have the right resources and frameworks in place to recognise and respond effectively to emerging threats.”