Online slots are easily accessible. This accessibility increases the level of risk for a minority of players who become addicted to the games, binge play, and lose significant amounts of money. While these problems do not exist for most players, the UK Government has decided that protections are required to help reduce overall risk levels.
These protections involve the imposition of stake limits when playing online slots. The stake limit for under-25s will be £2, and for people aged 25 and over, it will be £5. The new limits will come into force from September 2024, and they have caused some controversy, which we will examine further in this article.
New limits follow a period of consultation
The imposition of restrictions follows similar work done by the UK Government concerning fixed-odds betting terminals in betting shops when a stake limit of £2 was introduced. Consultations on similar impositions on digital slots began after a white paper on gambling reforms was published in 2023.
The consultations, which took 10 weeks to complete, involved people from the gambling industry, treatment providers, academics, and other affected individuals.
Following these discussions, the decision was made to impose the stake restrictions. When the restrictions come into force in September 2024, there will be a six-week transition period to give operators time to implement the £5 restrictions. Then, there will be a further period of six weeks to enable providers to complete the technical work needed to implement the £2 limit for players under 25. These transition periods are aimed at making it easier for the industry to adapt from having no restrictions in place to being fully compliant with the new rules.
Why are the changes so controversial?
The changes brought about by the government have proved controversial with many stakeholders. Those involved with the gambling industry in the UK are unhappy with the potential losses involved.
When the consultation process began, the government considered a range of limits between £2 and £15. The white paper issued in April 2023 suggested a mid-point limit of around £8.50. This limit would have cost the industry up to £185m.
A loss of this amount would have made some inroads into annual industry profits of around £4 billion, of which slots account for around £3.2 billion. However, the lower limits imposed will be significantly more financially damaging to the industry. In addition, the implementation of the new restrictions is likely to be costly for operators.
These losses and costs are a concern for UK-licensed sites that are in direct competition with non GAMSTOP casinos that operate overseas and are not subject to limits imposed by the UK Government. These sites are licensed in other jurisdictions and are growing in popularity with players due to having fewer restrictions in place.
On the other side of the discussion, campaigners who have concerns about gambling addiction problems believe that the new restrictions do not go far enough. They believe that a £2 stake limit should be imposed for all players rather than only those aged under 25.
They also believe that operators are concerned about damage to their profits while the real costs are to human health and life.
It’s difficult to judge the concerns on both sides of the discussion until the new stake limits are in place. When this happens, the costs to the UK gambling industry will become clearer. We will also be able to see whether the positive effects on potential risks to players happen.
The impacts of the new slot stake limits will become clearer later in 2024 and into 2025. Until then, the UK Government’s decisions will remain controversial with many people, who believe the limits are too low or two high depending on their position in the discussion.