The Gambling Commission has announced a new set of technical standards for land-based gaming machines, designed to enhance safety and fairness in gaming. These regulations, revealed on Wednesday in response to a consultation regarding the year 2025, specifically apply to new category A, B, and certain C machines, with implementation phases scheduled between March 2027 and October 2028.
Among the focal points of the new regulations is the requirement for players to set personal limits on their play time and monetary losses before starting a session. They must either accept these limits or default settings, with mandatory limits prohibiting play without them. The regulations set a maximum limit of 60 minutes and a £450 ($597) net loss for consumer-set limits. Default limits are stricter, allowing only 20 minutes of play and a maximum net loss of £150.
Once a player reaches their limit, they will be notified, triggering a mandatory break. Depending on whether the limit was set by the player or default, break times will vary; initial breaks after default limits will last 10 seconds and 20 seconds respectively, while all other breaks will last at least 30 seconds. During these breaks, machines must display information promoting safer gambling, outlining the reasons for the interruption and providing options to either end the session or adjust limits.
Moreover, new machines and multi-game "compendiums" must automatically show players their net positions—essentially their winnings minus losses—and how long they have been playing. Players have the option to hide this information after a minimum display time of ten seconds.
The new standards also include real-time alerts for staff when players reach or modify their set limits. Although these alerts will be required, staff members are not obligated to interact with customers immediately upon receiving them. To mitigate the strain of alert volume, there will be no alerts triggered for players reaching the first two default time thresholds (20 and 40 minutes).
Machines must refrain from audiovisual celebrations for returns that are equal to or less than the last stake. Additionally, features like turbo modes or quick spin options, designed to hasten gameplay, will not be permitted.
These Gaming Machine Technical Standards (GMTS) will mainly apply to newly released category A, B1, B2, B3, B3A, and B4 games classified as "new" after June 30, 2027, based on their final testing dates. Existing machines will largely be exempt due to potential technical and financial complications related to upgrades, with industry estimates suggesting that around 7,770 machines could be removed as a result of mandatory upgrades. In cases where older machines operate alongside newer games on a compendium, the introduction of any new game requires the entire platform to comply with the new standards.
Implementation will occur in three stages: first, session definition starting March 30, 2027; the majority of GMTS changes effective June 30, 2027; and staff alerts becoming a legal requirement by October 3, 2028.
According to the Gambling Commission’s business impact assessment, the moderate costs for the GMTS consolidation are estimated at £12,000, with testing strategies costing around £3,200. Significant costs are expected for implementing limit-setting functionalities, estimated between £500,000 and £1 million, and displaying session information for new games, projected between £554,000 and £1.154 million. The biggest expense will come from staff alerts, anticipated to be between £20.76 million and £41.63 million annually, primarily attributed to data management systems and additional staff. However, offset measures like exempting existing machines and reduced alerting at lower-risk thresholds are expected to halve potential alert volumes, while minor costs will involve design and game feature adjustments.
The scale of the gaming machine market is considerable, with a gross gambling yield of £2.6 billion projected between April 2024 and March 2025, 88.5% of which will come from category B machines, alongside a steady increase in machine-based play since 2019.
Helen Rhodes, Director of Major Policy Projects and Evaluation, commented, "These measures will help both to empower consumers to understand and manage their gambling and ensure operators play their part. Feedback from various stakeholders contributed to our decision-making, leading us to make adjustments where legitimate concerns were raised."
These new standards emerge from the UK Government’s 2023 Gambling Act Review white paper, reiterating commitments to promoting safer gambling and increased transparency. The Commission reported receiving 1,065 responses during the 2025 consultation, highlighting input from industry representatives, clubs, and advocacy groups, which influenced changes such as the net position for monetary metrics and refined session definitions to minimize interruptions while exempting existing machines to balance harm reduction against economic considerations.
In a related development, acting chief executive of the Bingo Association, Sarah Gardner, announced at the organization's annual general meeting on May 7 that from July 29, 2026, non-remote operators must remove gaming machines immediately upon being informed by the Commission if they do not possess the required technical operating license or fail to meet technical standards, aiming to streamline processes and ensure non-compliant machines are swiftly discarded.
The Social Market Foundation (SMF) has called for the government to increase Machine Games Duty on higher-risk Category B electronic gaming machines in the upcoming budget. Industry leaders like Betfred and Entain have opposed such increases, citing potential human costs and adverse effects on local high streets.
