The UK Gambling Commission has announced that an online autoplay ban will come into force in January 2025.
A series of new rules and regulations will come into effect later this year and next as part of the UK government’s gambling industry reform.
Banning online autoplay features and reducing the overall game intensity comes after recommendations made in the white paper.
Other changes are set to include new financial vulnerability checks and risk assessments, in-person age verification, improving consumer choice for direct marketing and personal management licenses.
Online Autoplay Ban
Gambling operators must adopt the online autoplay ban on January 17, 2025. This also includes lowering the speed and intensity of online products.
The idea is to improve customers understanding regarding gameplay and potential losses. The government and UKGC have been seeking this particular change for some time.
All in all, there will be bans on the following:
- Autoplay
- Turbo/Speed up features
- In-game celebrations of wins less than the stake
- Option to play multiple games at once
- Spins speeds of less than 5 seconds
Furthermore, gambling firms will also have to display net spend and the overall time spent gambling at all times for online consumers.
Consumer Choice For Direct Marketing
Another key change is for consumer choice on direct marketing. From January 17, 2025, gambling operators will have to provide customers with better options to opt-in and opt-out of direct marketing for gambling products. This only applies to online gambling.
Currently, gambling operators use varied and complex marketing techniques. They often target the individual directly with a series of promotions that are tailored to the player’s preferences.
Email marketing is also extremely common amongst gambling firms. In the past, companies have been criticised for sending out content that has reached self-excluded players.
From next year, it is expected that UK-based players will have much more freedom, flexibility and control over what forms of marketing they receive.
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