The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) is set to enact widespread changes in regulating their gambling market in 2025, hoping to increase the market’s safety and customer choice. These changes are consistent with the government’s Whitepaper on “High States Gambling Reforms” published in 2023. The Whitepaper includes boosting the consumer choice over getting betting advertisements, limiting the intensity of online games, and light-touch financial vulnerability checks.
These new changes will also include tighter regulations to support age verification on-premises and a clear approach to implement these laws in four stages; August & November 2024 and January & February 2025. However, industry experts at the recently concluded SBC Summit in Lisbon expressed concern due to the need for more progress in implementing the regulations as proposed.
While other industry experts at the SBC Summit agreed that heavy regulations might be on the way in 2025, most emphasize that the new regulations will positively impact the UK betting market. The Commission has already conducted a series of frictionless financial risk assessments aimed at reducing cases where players spend huge amounts within short periods without checks leading to gambling addiction.
These tests won’t affect consumers in 2024 during the pilot phase, but the UKGC hopes to refine the data-sharing systems before fully rolling them out in 2025. Fortunately, online gamblers in the UK can check SportyTrader for available promotions to reduce their expenditure without sacrificing their gambling adventure.
Light-touch financial risk checks
The UK Gambling Commission is currently implementing regulations to identify financially vulnerable online players and support customers subject to bankruptcy or those with a track record of unpaid debts. The commission will do that through financial vulnerability checks on players with a deposit of over £150 a month on betting.
To implement these regulations, the commission will leverage publicly available information and won’t need gambling operators to consider their customers’ personal details like job titles. These checks will be fully implemented from 28th February 202 after the first phase kicked off on 30th August 2024.
Reducing the intensity of online betting products
New regulations will reduce the intensity and speed of online gambling products while improving their fairness. The commission also hopes to increase consumer understanding of the games, extending the current requirements for slots and other digital products. However, the commission will ban:
● Autoplay features
● Features that speed up the time it takes to show results or give the illusion of control like slam stops or turbo.
● Visual or audio celebrations for returns that are less or equal to the player’s stake
● Casino slot spin speeds with less than seconds, except peer-to-peer poker
● Operator-led functionality facilitates betting on multiple products simultaneously like blackjack and roulette tables.
Further changes require gambling operators to show their players their net expenditure and the time they spend on betting in real-time. The changes will come into effect from 17th March 2025.
Direct marketing – improving player choice
Gambling companies will need to give their customers the option to opt in or opt out of the type of products they want to receive and the marketing channel they need. The commission aims to empower players by improving their control over gambling marketing products that they want to receive. This requirement will only apply to online gambling operators and comes into effect from 17th January 2025.