Gambling Blogger

Changes Bound for UK Online Casinos

Over the past year, the UK has underwent a number of different changes in the online space targeted specifically at casinos and gambling behaviour – the ban on credit card deposits for gambling sites was aimed to tackle the problem players, and the launch of initiatives like Gamstop have also followed the same goal of trying to cut down on the number of problem gamblers in the country – although sites found through platforms like casinosnotongamstop.org have circumvented this somewhat, further changes are on the way to UK casinos with the same goal. The primary target for now has been slot machines, having by far the highest average loss rate per player of all online gambling products, the goal is to tackle that figure and bring it down.

(Image from best10casinosonline.co.uk)

There are two changes aimed at all operators that aren’t specifically for slots, which are;

  • A permanent ban is aimed to target ‘reverse withdrawals’ or the ability for players to re-gamble money that they have already previously requested to withdraw, leading to bigger losses over a session.
  • A clear display must be offered to show a player their total wins and losses as well as play time during an online slots session – this is something that some games already offer, and whilst slots is the target here it is expected that this will become a blanket change across all online services.

There are also four key features of online slots that have been targeted specifically too;

  • Slot spins that are faster than 2.5 seconds are to be banned in an aim to slow down the amount that can be played and reduce potential losses.
  • Auto-play features which could lead to the same loss of track of time or play amount are also on the list of features to be removed – this includes the option to set a pre-set number of spins to autocomplete.
  • Features like turbo which speed up the time of play or give an illusion of control, much like auto-play, are on the list of removals.
  • Sounds or imagery which give the illusion of a win even when the return is equal to or lower than the initial stake.

The proposed changes are to be implemented by the latest of 31 October 2021 by all operators within the country, and with the UK Gambling Commission making assertive steps to reduce the issue of problem gamblers within the country it certainly won’t be the last list of changes that are put forward either, the next target has already been aimed at customer interaction which is expected to be announced later this year following a consultation back in 2020, presumably aimed at helping to provide services to help players reduce online gambling exposure further if requested.