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UK gambling commission has big plans to change gaming machine technical standards and seeks improvements

May 16, 2025

The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) has announced and is nearing the end of a new consultation on the standards of gaming machines that it licenses. Like many of its previous changes to these standards, it is expected that its recommendations for changes will see movements towards gambling machines that are deemed safer for players and encourage responsible gambling choices.

As it often has in the past, the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) is making moves to ensure that players using gaming machines are interacting with their chosen pastime in as safe and responsible a manner as possible. This most recent move by the UKGC is aimed at reviewing the standards that apply to physical gaming machines, and looks to incorporate a number of changes to bring those standards more in line with current thinking about what constitutes responsible gaming. This consultation should see significant changes for players and operators, as well as for machine manufacturers and software providers, and has already caused some ripples across the industry in the lead-up to its end date.

Why the UK Gambling Commission is important

The UKGC was originally established by the Gambling Act 2005 and has since been responsible for regulating commercial gambling across Great Britain. In this position, it has been instrumental in providing licenses to operators and providing a gambling ecosystem in which players feel safe but are also provided with sufficient options. The UKGC works to make sure that gambling is handled in a way that will allow people to engage with it responsibly, but at the same time, to prevent at-risk persons from becoming addicted or developing problems associated with gambling.

There are a number of reasons why the UKGC is so important to the international gambling industry. Firstly, they have one of the strongest focuses on protecting the consumer in the gambling environment across the industry, but they also acknowledge that individuals who want to gamble will find ways to do so. Secondly, they issue licenses for online gambling operators all over the world if those operators meet their standards. This allows operators to gain a degree of legitimacy and trust from consumers regardless of their geo-location and the local regulatory environment.

In this way, any smart gambler knows that they can feel secure using a platform that holds a license from the UKGC, regardless of where they might be. Making sure that a platform holds a reputable license is, according to the site Toroslots, one of the most important steps in ensuring that the platform is secure and safe. When so many countries worldwide are hesitant or slow to keep up with the changing reality of gambling, having an organisation like the UKGC, which understands the industry and whose licenses vouch for the security of the platforms they regulate, is very valuable to consumers worldwide.

Current gaming machine technical standards

All physical gaming machines in the UK must comply with the standards that the UKGC sets out. The current gaming machine technical standards were revised in 2016 and have had only limited updates since then. The actual wording of the standards themselves is convoluted, but they are intended to secure a number of key things.

  • Every game should be random and fair.
  • Players should know the odds and rules of the games.
  • Games must not be misleading.
  • Machines must have sufficient player safety features, such as responsible gambling messaging.
  • Machines must log activity that occurs on them accurately.

Why such a dramatic change?

We mentioned above that the current standards have been amended and changed over time, but those amendments are unable to fully reflect the reality of the current modern gambling landscape and the attitudes towards it. With so much new technology and new techniques being used by operators, it is thought that the entire framework of the standards needs to be re-codified and updated to reflect the current industry situation.

The UKGC has been consulting with various industry stakeholders since January 29th, 2025, and is expected to announce its findings or new gaming machine standards sometime after June 3rd. While it is difficult to say exactly what might be included in these changes, the UKGC has been clear that it wants to both futureproof the regulatory framework so that it doesn’t need to be wholly refreshed again, and to ensure that consumers remain protected despite changing technology and techniques available to operators.

So what exactly might change?

As we said, the full list of changes is expected sometime after 3rd June, when the current consultation with industry stakeholders ends, but some areas have been publicly discussed as under review:

  • Display of session time, wins/losses and other information such as the RTP in a simple and easy-to-understand format.
  • Improvements to the responsible gambling messaging that machines deliver, being both more frequent and impactful.
  • Limits to the volatility of machines, which should reduce the swing between win and loss cycles.
  • Better oversight of contactless or cashless play as more machines offer digital payment options.
  • Better testing protocols for randomness.
  • Limits on features and game speeds to reduce the prevalence of high-risk play styles.

Conclusion

The UKGC has shown a clear mission statement to protect consumers across the gambling industry, and this current move towards a restructuring of one of their existing standards is a reflection of this. As technology and techniques change over time, the regulatory and standards environments around those industries must also change for consumers to remain protected.

Whether the changes the UKGC decides on will be sufficient to the task is another matter, but stakeholders and consumers should feel confident that they will attempt to act in the best interests of the consumers.

Categories: Articles, Policy, Regulation

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