Gambling Commission confirms new rules will not apply to existing machines

The UK Gambling Commission has confirmed it will proceed with a revised compliance framework for land-based gaming machines, following a consultation that drew 1,065 responses, according to SBC News.

The consultation, launched last year, covered the Gaming Machine Technical Standards, the Gaming Machine Testing Strategy and the Licence Conditions and Codes of Practice. The Commission's published response confirms most of the proposed changes will go ahead, with some adjustments made in light of industry feedback.

The most significant change is that existing gaming machines already in operation will be excluded from the new standards. The Commission made the exclusion after operators and manufacturers raised concerns about the high cost of retrofitting technical changes to machines already on the market.

New requirements will instead apply only to new Category B machines from 30 June 2027, covering B2 fixed-odds betting terminals, B3 and B4 fruit and slot-style machines, and B1 casino machines. Manufacturers will need to build in improved access to gambling management tools and real-time information showing total playing time and net position.

The new rules will also restrict celebratory mechanics to wins that exceed the stake size, and will remove turbo spin, quick spin and slam stop functions entirely from qualifying machines.

Separately, the Commission is changing how a gambling 'session' is defined, so that it reflects actual gameplay rather than other machine interactions such as depositing or navigating menus. Graham Burgin, the Commission's Policy Senior Manager, said this was intended to prevent break triggers from activating unnecessarily before a session has even begun, as reported by SBC News.

On breaks themselves, new machines will use a graduated escalation model rather than the current flat 30-second pause. A player's first session limit will trigger a 10-second break, the second will trigger 20 seconds, before returning to the standard default thereafter.

Staff alerts flagging customer play will only be sent once a player reaches their second session limit, which the Commission said would allow land-based staff resources to be directed towards interactions where risk is greatest.

Players will also be able to choose to hide the elapsed time and net position data shown on screen once a break is triggered. The Commission said this approach supports its policy aims while letting consumers manage their own privacy preferences.

The changes will be phased in across three dates. The revised session definition takes effect on 30 March 2027, the bulk of the technical and design changes follow on 30 June 2027, and the staff alert requirements come into force last, on 3 October 2028. The Commission said the later deadline for staff alerts reflects the technical and procedural challenges operators face in delivering a workable solution.