UK Gambling Commission announces new slot standards for fairer and safer products

• The UKGC has announced a new set of measures strengthening consumer safeguards at land-based venues
• The regulator has calibrated the new rules based on feedback during a consultation period
• These measures apply to new slot machines, not existing ones, due to complex technological requirements

The UK Gambling Commission has published an official announcement on its website dated Wednesday, September 30, 2026, in which it detailed plans to introduce new standards for gaming machines, in a bid to make them stronger and safer for consumers.

UKGC puts forward new proposals for making new slot machines safer

Among the changes outlined in the press release are measures such as a requirement for new category B gaming machines to provide consumers with improved access to gambling management tools and session information on how long players have been participating and how much they have won and lost.

These measures are widely adopted online, but they are now being transferred to the land-based sector in a bid to strengthen protections and actively steer consumers away from access and dangerous gambling patterns.

Thanks to this so-called "session information," licensees will be able to better meet their regulatory obligations, including prerequisites such as interacting with consumers who are displaying signs of gambling harm.

The regulator also expects to see changes to how games are designed, arguing that responsible game design must be applied to ensure that "awards below the stake size are not celebrated and that features that permit a customer to reduce the time until a result is known."

All of these changes are put forward following a consultation to implement proposals from the 2023 Gambling Act Review White Paper, High Stakes: Gambling Reform for the Digital Age, which you may read further on here.

Commenting on the latest proposed measures, UK Gambling Commission Director of Major Policy Projects and Evaluation Helen Rhodes added:

"Consultation feedback from a range of stakeholders helped to inform our thinking, and where there was legitimate and evidenced concern, we made changes. We are confident that the consultation has led to a package of changes where the benefits to consumers are proportionate to the costs of implementation and that the staged timeline for implementation is reasonable and achievable."

Extensive consultation has gone into the new measures announced by the regulator

The regulator has not acted blindly in the matter either, actively relying on feedback from the consultation process which was then used to refine the parameters of the proposals before the final versions were put forward on the commission’s website.

While critics may see the measure as underwhelming, i.e. only new machines will be held to these new rules, the commission has attempted to partially address the reason behind this:

" Existing gaming machines will be exempt from the new requirements due to the complex technical changes and costs to business that would not necessarily deliver proportionate consumer benefits. In addition, steps have been taken to reduce the risk of consumer and staff ‘alert fatigue’ and to protect consumer privacy," an excerpt from the regulator’s statement reads.

The new changes come at a time when the land-based sector is facing stricter measures that have led to job losses. The sector also foresees further closures brought on by rising tax levies and worsening operational conditions, not least because of toughening standards on consumer protection.

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