The £70 Million Exception in Britain’s New Gambling Machine Rules

The Gambling Commission has dropped plans to extend new player safeguards to existing gambling machines after considering estimated replacement costs of £70.85 million. The exemption covers machines that could be upgraded as well as those that could not. [1]

From 30 June 2027, new category B machines and games in Great Britain will have to provide time and loss limits and display information about the customer’s session. The decision, published on 30 September 2026, leaves existing products outside those requirements unless subsequent changes bring them into scope. [2]

Operators will not necessarily need to replace a cabinet for the rules to catch up with it. Adding a new game to a machine offering several titles can trigger compliance across its game collection. The frequency of those additions will determine how quickly many customers encounter the safeguards. [3]

The cost of compulsory replacement

Industry respondents estimated that about 7,770 machines could not be updated to meet the proposed requirements. Around 5,000 of those machines were in clubs. Most of the remainder were in adult gaming centres and bingo premises, disproportionately among smaller businesses. [1]

Updating compatible machines and games would have cost a further £15.25 million to £25 million, according to industry feedback recorded by the Commission. The regulator concluded that the “direct business impacts outweigh the potential consumer protection benefits”. [1]

The Commission qualifies those costs in its impact assessment. Replacement figures were upper-limit estimates because they did not allow for investment operators would ordinarily make in their machine estates. Some equipment would have been replaced anyway. The £70.85 million therefore cannot be treated as an independently established net saving from the exemption. [4]

The regulator also considered requiring upgrades only where existing machines were technically capable of complying. It rejected that approach because a rule based on technical capability would be difficult to define, assess and enforce efficiently. [3]

The Commission cited a further risk that machines removed from licensed premises could enter the illegal market. It referred to previous enforcement cases involving obsolete machines that had been modified for unlawful use, while acknowledging that it could not accurately estimate the scale of any resulting activity. [3]

A new game can change an old machine’s obligations

The dividing line between new and existing products is the date on the final test-house report or relevant signed internal testing documentation. A machine or game with documentation dated before 30 June 2027 counts as existing. Documentation dated on or after that date places it in the new category. The date a cabinet arrives at a venue does not determine its status under this rule. [5]

Changes to hardware or software that could affect game fairness or randomness require retesting and can bring an existing product into the new category. Changes that do not potentially affect those characteristics do not, by themselves, make a game new. [5]

For a multi-game machine containing a newly classified game, every game must comply with the limit-setting requirements. That includes older titles and category C or D games offered alongside it. An operator retaining the cabinet and most of its games can therefore acquire new obligations through a single addition. [6]

New games must show elapsed session time and net position during play by default, with an option to hide the information. On a machine offering both new and existing games, that information must also appear on the main menu. Older games can remain without an in-game display. [6]

What the limits actually stop

Customers using products brought into scope must actively choose their own time and monetary limits or accept defaults. At the start of a session, default thresholds cannot exceed 20 minutes and a £150 net loss. Customer-set thresholds cannot exceed 60 minutes and a £450 net loss. [7]

Reaching a threshold interrupts play, but customers can continue afterwards with further limits. When defaults are selected at the start, the first time-limit break must last at least 10 seconds and the second at least 20 seconds. Other required breaks last at least 30 seconds. Further play can take total session losses above £150. [7]

The standard defines a session on an individual machine, ending when all available uncommitted credit is collected, among other conditions. The provisions do not impose a shared personal spending allowance across machines or premises. [6]

Staff-alert requirements take effect later, on 3 October 2028, and retain the June 2027 definition of a new product. The first two default time thresholds are exempt from staff alerts. Licensed operators covered by the revised code must respond appropriately and in a timely manner. The Commission says an alert does not require a customer interaction every time. Staff must consider it alongside other indicators of possible harm. [8]

The Commission estimates annual costs of £20.76 million to £41.63 million for the revised staff-alert responsibilities, mainly for data-management systems and additional staffing. The range depends on how widely new games spread. [4]

The regulator expects regular additions to game collections to bring about 90% of machines in the relevant categories within the session-information requirements quickly. It gives no date for reaching that coverage. There is also no general deadline requiring every exempt machine to be upgraded. [1][3]

The Commission plans to evaluate customers’ awareness of their gambling and the quality of staff interventions. It says a full evaluation of the package will only be possible after the staff-alert requirements take effect in October 2028. [4]