Slot Sites and Online Gambling Law In The UK

When choosing a slot site to play on, a UK license must be a priority. In this article we explain why and provide some important information about how gambling is regulated in the UK for your protection.

Any business taking bets in the UK, online or offline, is required to hold a gambling license. In the UK a gambling license is a guarantee of safety, security and fairness for consumers.

All casinos listed at SlotSites.Ltd are UK-licensed.

Licenses are issued by the Gambling Commission which was established in 2005 with full oversight of the industry. Their remit is threefold:

1. Prevent gambling being used for criminal purposes such as fraud or money laundering
2. Ensure gambling is conducted fairly
3. Protect children and the vulnerable from being exploited by gambling companies

These objectives are achieved through a license program with strict rules laid out in a document called the Licence Conditions and Codes of Practice (LCCP).

NOTE: Licensed slot sites show their license information in text at the bottom of every page of their website. You can click on a link to view the company information on the Gambling Commission website.

Through the LCCP, protection is afforded to players at UK slot sites in the following areas.

Responsible Gambling

All licensed casinos must make responsible gambling tools available to every customer through their account. These tools allow a player to set their own limits on deposits, wagering and losses, set time frames for reminders showing how long they have been betting for, opt-out of marketing activity and temporarily or permanently suspend their own account.

All sites must also be part of the Gamstop program through which gamblers can exclude themselves from all gambling websites and apps licensed in the UK.

Other regulations that the Gambling Commission has introduced to make slots play safer include:

• A 2.5 second pause between slots spins
• A ban on deposits with credit cards
• A ban on reversing withdrawals whilst they are awaiting processing by the operator

Fair Gaming

As well as operators, game suppliers must be licensed too.

A condition of the game supplier license is that games must be audited by 3^rd party testing houses.  Tests are carried out to ensure that they are using random number generators to generate a completely random result on every spin, and that advertised Return to Player and Maximum Win values are correct. This is done by simulating billions of real money spins in a test environment. The testing houses used for this purpose must be approved by the Gambling Commission. You can view them here.

Slot providers are also required to publish the Return to Player percentage of all their games on the rules pages that can be accessed once the game has been loaded.

Protecting Your Money

Players are also protected if a licensed betting business becomes insolvent. For that situation, the conditions of the operator license state that customer balances must be ring-fenced from the main business account so that they can still be paid back.

There are three levels of protection here – basic, medium and high.

At basic level, whilst player accounts are separate to the rest of the business, they are still part of an administration procedure where the final assets of an insolvent business are split between creditors. Therefore, there it is not a guarantee that a full balance would be returned.  

At medium level some form of insurance is provided to protect player balances, but the return of your full balances is still not fully guaranteed in the final settlement.

At high level player balances are separate and overseen by a 3^rd party to guarantee protection and the return of the full balance should the operator become insolvent.

Fairness and Transparency

A lot of work has been done by the Gambling Commission over the last decade to make the gambling industry’s marketing activities more transparent and less predatory.

Now, all bonuses and free spins deals must be clearly explained with significant terms and conditions published close to the headline. Wagering requirements must not be excessive and it should be easy for the player to see how much more wagering is required to release their winnings.  You’ll find this information in your account, usually displayed near to your balance or your bonus balance.

Whilst this area may be open to interpretation, you won’t see 100x wagering requirements in the UK any more. At least not at licensed sites where they now average around 30x to 35x.

Dispute Resolution

Occasionally players may feel that they have been treated unfairly by an operator. Disputes over big withdrawals, game results like progressive jackpot wins, and bonuses are not uncommon. Most are resolved between the customer and the casino, but if no resolution is reached within 8 weeks then the customer is entitled to take the issue to an Alternative Dispute Resolution provider (ADR). There are eight of these assigned by the Gambling Commission.

An ADR will only deal with dispute over significant transactions. They refuse anything ‘frivolous or vexatious’, and certainly won’t consider a dispute that the player hasn’t made an effort to resolve directly with the operator first. However, it is a very important option and last resort for players who feel that they are not being treated fairly.

The online gambling industry in the UK has come a long way since the formation of the Gambling Commission and the first licenses issued back in 2005. Player protection is now better and consequently gambling is much safer. You can still play at unlicensed slot sites but remember, if you do, there is no guarantee that you will be afforded any of the protections described in this article.