Members of Parliament in the United Kingdom are calling on the government to treat retail investment in cryptocurrencies as a form of gambling.
A Treasury Select Committee says that cryptocurrency trading shares many similarities with gambling, including the risk that people will lose their entire investment.
However, the U.K. Treasury has already pushed back on the committee’s report, saying it does not support regulating crypto as gambling.
In a statement, the Treasury said that the risks posed by crypto are “typical of those that exist in traditional financial (markets).”
Trade association CryptoUK rejected the committee's findings, saying the politicians’ views on crypto assets are “unhelpful, false, fundamentally flawed and unsubstantiated.”
However, British gambling helpline “GamCare” has said that in the past two years, it had heard from more than 300 people who said they were struggling with investing in cryptocurrencies.
Research cited by Members of Parliament found that 40% of Bitcoin investors are men under age 35, which is widely viewed as the most risk-seeking portion of the population.
Cryptocurrency sponsorship has been widespread among professional soccer teams in the U.K., but teams in the Premier League recently agreed to end crypto and gambling sponsorships on the fronts of their jerseys starting with the 2026 season.
The Treasury Select Committee said the government’s plans to regulate cryptocurrencies as financial services would create a false impression that they are as secure as traditional investments.
The committee's report quotes surveys suggesting about one in 10 people in the U.K. hold cryptocurrency assets, mostly Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH).
One survey found that the main reason people said they owned crypto was that it’s a “fun investment.”
