Gambling Commission Sets Limits for New Gaming Machines From June 2027 and Exempts Existing Ones

The regulator has confirmed time and loss limits, an on-screen net position and a ban on turbo and slam-stop features for new Category B machines, after more than 1,000 consultation responses. It dropped the plan to retrofit machines already on the floor, which industry estimated would have put about 7,770 of them at risk.

• The Gambling Commission published its response to the January 2025 gaming machine consultation on 30 September, confirming limit-setting tools and a session display of net position and elapsed time for new Category A and B machines
• Players must choose their own limits, capped at 60 minutes and a £450 net loss, or accept defaults of 20 minutes and a £150 net loss, and reaching a limit forces a break in play of 10 to 30 seconds
• Existing machines are exempt unless they carry a new game, which the Commission says avoids about £70.85 million of replacement costs that would have fallen hardest on clubs, arcades and bingo halls
• New Category A, B and C machines may not celebrate a return at or below the stake, and turbo, quick spin and slam stop features are banned
• The session definition takes effect on 30 March 2027, most rules on 30 June 2027 and staff alerts on 3 October 2028, as the sector fights a possible doubling of machine games duty

The Commission Confirms Machine Rules Two Years After It Consulted

The Gambling Commission has finalised the gaming machine package promised in the 2023 Gambling Act Review white paper. Its response, published on 30 September, covers 12 proposals to amend the Gaming Machine Technical Standards (GMTS), the Gaming Machine Testing Strategy and the Licence Conditions and Codes of Practice (LCCP). The consultation ran from 29 January to 3 June 2025 and drew 1,065 responses, 990 of them from clubs. A further proposal, a licence condition requiring the removal of non-compliant machines on the Commission's notice, was settled separately and took effect on 29 July 2026.

The core of the package is a new Section 15 of the GMTS. It applies to new Category A, B1, B2, B3, B3A and B4 machines, from casino B1s and bookmakers' B2 terminals to the B3 and B4 machines in arcades, bingo halls and clubs. A machine or game counts as new if its test house report or signed-off internal testing documentation is dated 30 June 2027 or later. Where a new game is added to a game compendium, every game on that machine, including older games and Category C and D content, must comply.

What the New Standards Require

At the start of a session, players must make an active choice, presented with equal prominence, between setting their own time and loss limits in a free text box and accepting the defaults. Customer-set limits may not exceed 60 minutes or a £450 net loss, and "no limits" is not an option. Default limits may not exceed 20 minutes or a £150 net loss. Reaching or changing a limit triggers a break in play: at least 10 seconds at the first default time limit, 20 seconds at the second, and 30 seconds in every other case. Breaks must carry safer gambling information, the type of limit reached, the session's elapsed time and net position, and signposting to support, and may not carry marketing or promotional offers.

New machines must also display net position and elapsed time by default while a game is being played, with an option to hide them. Compendiums carrying a new game must show the same figures on the main menu. A session ends after 240 seconds without player input, a full cash-out or an interruption such as a power cut.

Two design rules apply to new Category A, B and C machines. They may not celebrate, with sounds or visual effects associated with a win, any return less than or equal to the stake, and they may not allow a player to shorten the time to a result. The Commission names turbo, quick spin and slam stop as examples.

Staff alerts come last. From 3 October 2028, reaching or changing any limit must send a real-time alert to staff showing the reason, elapsed time and net position, except at the first two default time limits. A revised social responsibility code provision, 3.3.3, will require non-remote casino, bingo, betting and adult gaming centre licensees to act on those alerts "appropriately and in a timely manner". Clubs are not bound by social responsibility codes; the Commission says it may amend its code of practice for clubs instead.

What Changed After the Consultation

The largest change is scope. The Commission had proposed to cover existing machines within 24 months; industry estimated that about 7,770 could not be updated, around 5,000 of them in clubs. The Commission put replacement costs at about £70.85 million, judged that disproportionate, and noted the risk that discarded machines could be supplied to the illegal market. It expects new games to reach about 90% of in-scope machines in time, because compendiums are refreshed regularly.

It also switched the monetary limit from deposited sums to net position, cut the first two default breaks from 30 seconds to 10 and 20, and removed staff alerts at those two thresholds, which it estimates halves alert volumes. Players may hide their session figures after 10 seconds of a break, for privacy. It rejected exemptions for tablets, electronic bingo terminals and community games, refused the casino sector's request for defaults of 60 minutes and £250, and declined to keep the Betting and Gaming Council's Anonymous Player Awareness System (APAS), which it understands gives only one break per session.

Three industry requests were granted: inflation-linked game link values on Category C machines, removal of the 50/50 rule for game links after a losing game on Category B, and permission to gamble a live jackpot win.

Industry Opposition and Campaigner Support, as the Commission Records It

According to the response, licensees, clubs and trade associations led the opposition on existing machines, default limits and staff alerts; one trade association called the evidence "a weak basis", and smaller licensees and clubs said the proposals could put them out of business. In May 2025, Bacta vice president Joseph Cullis called the original proposals an "existential threat" to the industry, according to Focus Gaming News. Charities, academics and some licensees supported them; one charity said there was "strong evidence" that a 30-second break can disrupt harmful play. Some warned that the relaxations, minor individually, make products more harmful when compounded. Chrysalis Research, for the casino, arcade and bingo trade associations, found casino and arcade players broadly supportive of limit setting, while bingo customers opposed staff alerts by 53% to 27%.

Helen Rhodes, the Commission's director of major policy projects and evaluation, said that "where there was legitimate and evidenced concern, we made changes". The Commission estimates staff alerts will cost licensees £20.76 million to £41.63 million a year, mostly in data systems and staffing.

The Exemption Turns a Retrofit Into a Slow Replacement Cycle

The Commission is relying on commercial habit, the regular supply of new games to compendiums, to bring about 90% of machines into scope, so coverage will grow with each estate refresh rather than arrive on a set date. Older machines, disproportionately in clubs and smaller arcades, can run without limits for as long as they stay in service. The Commission says it considered and rejected five and ten year sunset dates, so there is no backstop.

The Defaults Are Set to Reach the Riskiest Sessions, Not Most Sessions

The Commission's data shows where the limits fall. Only 2.4% of Category B sessions last over 60 minutes and 2.7% end in a net loss of over £200, but 15.0% run past 20 minutes, and 24.3% do so on Category B machines in casinos. A 20-minute default will therefore interrupt a meaningful share of ordinary play, which is why the first two breaks were shortened and their staff alerts removed. Category B machines generated £2.29 billion of the £2.6 billion in gross gambling yield that machines earned in licensed premises in the year to March 2025, and people who played fruit or slot machines in person were 3.6 times more likely than the average past-year gambler to score 8 or more on the Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI).

The Rules Arrive in the Middle of the Tax Fight

The response lands as the land-based sector argues that doubling machine games duty to 40% would close venues: Rank says a third of its venues would shut, and the BGC has taken its campaign to the Prime Minister's constituency. The response holds out something in return: it says the government will not consider deregulation, such as debit cards on machines, more Category B machines in arcades and bingo halls, or a stakes and prizes review, until machine protections are raised. This package is that precondition.

The Commission has given ground on cost and kept its protections for new machines, with a two-year runway for staff alerts that it calls "a hard stop". What it cannot set is the pace at which old machines leave the floor.