BGC Members Achieve Record 97% Pass Rate in Age-Verification Tests

The Betting and Gaming Council announced in August 2026 that its members recorded a 97% overall pass rate across independent age-verification test purchases carried out by Serve Legal from May 2025 through April 2026, and this figure represents the highest score among all retail sectors measured during the same period.

Those tests placed supermarkets at 80%, convenience stores at 77%, specialist vape shops at 61%, and delivery services at 44%, while the BGC result also marked a five-percentage-point gain compared with the previous year and stood as the strongest performance across four consecutive annual cycles.

Details of the Independent Testing Programme

Serve Legal conducted the mystery shopping exercises across multiple retail categories to assess how effectively businesses prevented sales of age-restricted products to individuals under the legal age, and the programme covered licensed betting premises operated by BGC members alongside the other sectors listed above.

Each test involved an attempt by a young person who appeared under 25 to purchase an age-restricted item, after which the outcome was recorded as a pass when the sale was refused and a fail when the sale went ahead.

The methodology remained consistent year on year, which allowed direct comparison between the 2025-2026 cycle and earlier rounds, and the five-point improvement noted by the BGC reflected stronger refusal rates at the point of sale.

Comparative Performance Across Sectors

Figures released alongside the announcement showed BGC members ahead of every benchmarked category, and the gap proved widest when compared with delivery services that recorded only 44% compliance.

Supermarkets and convenience stores achieved 80% and 77% respectively, yet still trailed the betting sector by noticeable margins, while specialist vape shops reached 61% and therefore sat between the grocery channels and the delivery operators.

Observers noted that the consistent ranking placed betting premises at the top for the fourth straight year, and the latest data extended that lead by the additional five points achieved in the most recent testing window.

Context for the Results

The period from May 2025 to April 2026 encompassed twelve months of routine test purchasing, and the BGC statement highlighted that its members operate under a code of conduct that includes staff training and internal compliance checks designed to support age-verification standards.

Data from the independent tester Serve Legal formed the sole basis for the reported percentages, and the organisation applied the same protocols across all participating sectors to ensure comparability.

The announcement also referenced the BGC’s ongoing commitment to responsible gambling measures, though the published statistics focused exclusively on the age-verification pass rates rather than broader regulatory metrics.

Longer-Term Trends in Compliance

Over the four annual periods referenced in the release, BGC members maintained the leading position each year, and the progressive improvement reached its highest point with the 97% figure for 2025-2026.

Earlier cycles had shown lower but still sector-leading scores, which allowed the five-percentage-point rise to stand out as the largest single-year gain recorded in the series.

Those who track retail compliance patterns noted that the betting sector’s results contrasted with flatter trajectories in other categories, yet the announcement confined itself to the raw pass-rate comparisons without attributing causes.

Conclusion

The August 2026 statement from the Betting and Gaming Council therefore presented a clear snapshot of age-verification performance across the tested sectors, and the 97% pass rate for its members positioned the betting industry ahead of supermarkets, convenience stores, vape shops, and delivery services for the fourth consecutive year.

Because the underlying data originated from Serve Legal’s standardised test-purchasing programme, the reported numbers offered a consistent benchmark that stakeholders could track into future cycles.