Acceptable use policy

Information about our acceptable use policy

Your use of our site means that you accept, and agree to abide by this policy as well as our terms of website use. Please read this policy carefully.

This is a website operated by the Department of Health and Social Care (Department of Health and Social Care, 39 Victoria Street, London, SW1H 0EU). To contact us please email: OHIDGamblingLevy@dhsc.gov.uk.

Prohibited uses

You may use our site only for lawful purposes. You may not use our site:

• In any way that breaches any applicable local, national or international law or regulation.
• In any way that is unlawful or fraudulent, or has any unlawful or fraudulent purpose or effect.
• For the purpose of harming or attempting to harm minors in any way.
• To bully, insult, intimidate or humiliate any person.
• To send, knowingly receive, upload, download, use or re-use any material which does not comply with our content standards (see below).
• To transmit, or procure the sending of, any unsolicited or unauthorised advertising or promotional material or any other form of similar solicitation (spam).
• To knowingly transmit any data, send or upload any material that contains viruses, Trojan horses, worms, time-bombs, keystroke loggers, spyware, adware or any other harmful programs or similar computer code designed to adversely affect the operation of any computer software or hardware. 

You also agree:

• Not to reproduce, duplicate, copy or re-sell any part of our site in contravention of the provisions of our terms of website use.
• Not to access without authority, interfere with, damage or disrupt: 
  • Any part of our site;
  • Any equipment or network on which our site is stored;
  • Any software used in the provision of our site; or
  • Any equipment or network or software owned or used by any third party. 

Content standards (including of third party websites when linking)

These content standards apply to any and all material which you contribute to our site (a Contribution) and to any third party websites associated with it.

You must comply with the spirit of the following standards as well as the letter. The standards apply to each part of any Contribution as well as to its whole. The Department of Health and Social Care will determine, in its discretion, whether a Contribution breaches the content standards.

A contribution must:

• Be accurate (where they state facts).
• Be genuinely held (where they state opinions).
• Comply with applicable law in the UK and in any country from which they are posted. 

A contribution must not:

• Be defamatory of any person.
• Be obscene, offensive, hateful or inflammatory.
• Bully, insult, intimidate or humiliate.
• Promote sexually explicit material.
• Include child abuse material.
• Promote violence.
• Promote discrimination based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation or age.
• Infringe any copyright, database right or trade mark of any other person.
• Be likely to deceive any person.
• Be made in breach of any legal duty owed to a third party, such as a contractual duty or a duty of confidence.
• Promote any illegal content or activity.
• Be in contempt of court.
• Be threatening, abuse or invade another's privacy, or cause annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety.
• Be likely to harass, upset, embarrass, alarm or annoy any other person.
• Impersonate any person, or to misrepresent your identity or affiliation with any person.
• Give the impression that the Contribution emanates from us, if this is not the case.
• Advocate, promote, incite any party to commit, or assist any unlawful act such as (by way of example only) copyright infringement or computer misuse. 

Breach of this policy

We will determine, in our discretion, whether there has been a breach of this acceptable use policy through your use of our site. When a breach of this policy has occurred, we may take such action as we deem appropriate.

Failure to comply with this acceptable use policy constitutes a material breach of the terms of use upon which you are permitted to use our site, and may result in our taking all or any of the following actions:

• Immediate, temporary or permanent withdrawal of your right to use our site.
• Immediate, temporary or permanent removal of any posting or material uploaded by you to our site.
• Issue of a warning to you. 
• Legal proceedings against you for reimbursement of all costs on an indemnity basis (including, but not limited to, reasonable administrative and legal costs) resulting from the breach.
• Further legal action against you.
• Disclosure of such information to law enforcement authorities as we reasonably feel is necessary. 

We exclude liability for actions taken in response to breaches of this acceptable use policy. The responses described in this policy are not limited, and we may take any other action we reasonably deem appropriate.

Changes to the acceptable use policy

We may revise this acceptable use policy at any time by amending this page. Please check this page from time to time to take notice of any changes we make. Some of the provisions contained in this acceptable use policy may also be superseded by provisions or notices published elsewhere on our site.

This policy was last updated in February 2026.