New UK Casino Regulations

The United Kingdom has one of the largest gambling markets in the world and hosts some of the world’s iconic casinos such as the famous The Hippodrome Casino London. Since there was a drastic increase in gambling in the past couple of years, the UK government felt the need to draft new gambling regulations to adapt to the changing market landscape.

The United Kingdom Gambling Commission (UKGC) argued for stricter regulations and more vigilance to protect the players. Following which they have released some new requirements which the players and casinos must adhere to. 

In this article, we will talk about these new regulations so that you can adapt easily to the new scenario.

Brief History of Gambling Regulations in the UK 

We will just glance very briefly into the gambling regulations introduced before. In the United Kingdom, there was two previous significant pieces of legislation related to gambling. 

Betting and gambling in casinos were legalized in the United Kingdom. Then in 2005, The Gambling Act established the UKGC, with the aim of protecting underage people from gambling, preventing addiction, and controlling criminal activities in the Gambling industry.

What Are the New Regulations?

As per the new guidelines by the UKGC, all licensed casinos in the UK must abide by these requirements: 

Online Slots

Most of UKGC’s new regulations concern slot play since they account for a huge bulk of the gambling revenue. These are the new rules for slot games:

1.      A complete ban on slot features that allows very little time between bets, like the turbo mode.

2.      The auto-play feature has also been banned because UKGC felt it prevented players from quitting gambling or switching to other games.

3.      UKGC also bans any feature that lulls the player into a false belief that he/she has control over the spin. A good example of this would be losses masqueraded as wins, also known as LDWs, where players win but still get a payout lower than their stake.

Reverse Withdrawal

Reverse withdrawal is a feature that allows you to stop withdrawing money that you won and authorized to withdraw and reinvest that money into gambling again.

The UKGC contended that this feature was detrimental for gamblers because it caused them to give in to the temptation of continued gambling. Hence, from now on, all online casinos must deactivate the reverse withdrawal feature.

Authentication

The new regulations reinforce the belief that gambling in casinos should be safe and fair. Hence online casinos must verify the legal age of players before they are allowed access to any gambling feature.

The identification procedures at online casinos will be strengthened accordingly. Also, unverified players, from now on, won’t be able to use free credits and participate in demo games. Additionally, the use of credit cards for both land-based casinos, and online casinos is completely banned from now on.

Final Thoughts

The new UK casino regulations are a step in the right direction towards making gambling a safe and trustworthy process. But equally important, it does not adversely impact the customer experience or the quality of the casino experience.

- Photo by elenarostunova

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