The UK Gambling Commission will implement a revised compliance framework for land-based gaming machines, following a consultation that received 1,065 responses.
The changes follow a consultation paper launched in January 2025 covering the Gaming Machine Technical Standards (GMTS), Gaming Machine Testing Strategy, and Licence Conditions and Codes of Practice (LCCP), SBC News reported.
The Commission confirmed that it will proceed with a number of proposed changes, with some amendments made in response to feedback. Existing gaming machines will be excluded from the new standards following concerns about the costs businesses would face in making the required technical changes.
From 30 June 2027, new category B gaming machines will be required to incorporate responsible gaming design features to comply with the GMTS and LCCP. Manufacturers and operators will need to ensure machines provide improved access to gambling management tools and display information on each player’s activity, including total playing time and net position in real time.
The revised standards will also require games and machines to display celebratory mechanics only when the award is higher than the stake. They will also prohibit turbo spins, quick spins, and “slam stop” functions.
The changes will apply to category B2 machines, including fixed-odds betting terminals, B3/B4 fruit and slot-style machines, and B1 casino machines.
The Commission will also change the definition of a “session” to reflect actual gameplay time, rather than time spent on unrelated machine functions such as depositing funds or navigating menus.
Graham Burgin, Commission Policy Senior Manager, said the change would help prevent unnecessary break triggers from being activated before a game session has started.
The Commission will introduce a graduated approach to breaks triggered by default time limits. For the first default time limit of 20 minutes, the break can be as short as 10 seconds. For the second default limit of 40 minutes, the break can be as short as 20 seconds. Breaks triggered by customer-set limits, as well as other default and modified limits, will remain at a minimum of 30 seconds.
The Commission said the approach recognises that the first and second default time-limit alerts carry a lower level of risk.
Land-based staff alerts about customer play will also only be sent after the second session time limit is reached. The Commission said this would allow staff resources to be directed towards customer interactions involving greater risk.
Once a break is triggered, players will be able to choose to hide elapsed playing time and net position information from their screens. The Commission said this would support the policy objective while allowing customers to address privacy concerns.
The changes will be introduced in three stages.
The revised session definition will take effect on 30 March 2027, followed by most of the other amendments on 30 June 2027. Changes to staff alerts will take effect on 3 October 2028. The Commission said the extended implementation timeline recognises the technical and process challenges involved in delivering the changes.
