For British expats in the Canaries, paying by phone bill for a UK casino account just got a bit more complicated

Plenty of Brits who have settled in Tenerife, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote or Fuerteventura still keep a UK SIM, either in a second slot on the phone or in a kitchen drawer, for one reason: the bank texts its security codes to it.

The same number handles parcel tracking and appointment reminders from the GP surgery back home, and it gets busiest when people fly back to see family, something many will do over the two long bank holiday weekends coming up in the Canary Islands this autumn.

For anyone who keeps a UK casino account alongside it, phone billing has long been the payment of choice, mainly because no card details change hands. A pay by phone bill casino adds the deposit to your UK mobile bill, or takes it off pay-as-you-go credit, once you confirm with a text, and Bookies.com tracks which UK licensed sites still accept the method.

What has changed is everything around it, from who regulates the charge to what the casino must show you before you deposit. And none of it helps if you are in the wrong place when you tap.

How it works when your number is British and your address is not

The method depends entirely on a UK mobile number from one of the networks that supports carrier billing. You choose phone bill at the casino's cashier, enter the number, and a code arrives by text. Type it in and the deposit lands in the account, with the charge showing up on your next bill.

Mobile networks usually cap these payments at around £30 a day, and £240 a month is a common ceiling. That suits small, occasional deposits rather than anything bigger. It also only works in one direction. Winnings cannot be paid back to a phone bill, so you need a UK debit card or bank account registered on the casino account to withdraw.

For expats, the practical weak point is the SIM itself. Receiving texts abroad is normally free, but pay-as-you-go numbers can be disconnected after months without a top-up or a chargeable use, and losing the number means losing the deposit method along with the bank codes.

Where you are matters more than the method

This is the part many people find out the hard way. A UK Gambling Commission licence only covers play from within Great Britain, and UK casino sites and apps check your location. Open one in Costa Adeje or Puerto del Carmen, and it will usually refuse to let you play.

Online gambling in Spain, the islands included, falls under national law and the DGOJ, the Spanish regulator, and the legal route while you are here is a Spanish licensed site with a euro account. Many UK operators also expect their customers to live in the UK, so anyone whose home is now on the padrón of a Canarian municipality should read their account terms before assuming it still applies to them.

Put simply, phone billing on a UK casino account is something for the weeks spent in the UK, not for evenings on the terrace in Arona. Using a VPN to get round the block breaks the terms at almost every licensed site and can see winnings withheld.

What has changed this year?

Charges added to a phone bill used to be policed by a separate body set up for phone payments. Ofcom absorbed it in February 2025, and now regulates premium rate and phone paid services directly.

On the casino side, the Gambling Commission has tightened how spending tools are presented. Since October 2025, sites have had to prompt new customers to set a financial limit before their first deposit. From 30th September 2026, only a limit on the total amount you pay in may be called a "deposit limit", and it has to be offered at least as prominently as any other type of limit. Expect to meet that screen when you next sign in on a visit home, along with extra verification if the account has sat idle.

Check the welcome offer terms as well. Some operators exclude phone bill deposits from qualifying for a sign-up bonus, so funding the first deposit this way can mean missing it.

Budgeting from a euro income

Our recent look at how the Canary Islands cost of living has made UK expats sharper about where their money goes found a community converting every euro back into sterling before spending it. Phone billing deserves the same treatment. The deposit feels painless because it vanishes into next month's bill, and for anyone paying that UK bill out of a euro income, the exchange rate takes another slice before it is settled.

A few habits help:

• Before you travel, check the UK number is still live and can receive texts.
• Set the deposit limit when the site asks, and treat the network's £30 cap as a ceiling, not a budget.
• Remember a phone bill deposit is money spent now, even if a contract bill collects it later.
• Keep a UK debit card on the account so any withdrawal has somewhere to go.

The UK SIM in the drawer is there to keep a British bank account working from the islands, and that is the job it does best. If you only play during a fortnight back in Manchester or Cardiff, set the limit before you land, and leave the account alone once you are back on the island.