The gambling world is an ever-evolving one and this is mostly due to technological advancements changing the way the public gamble and also what they gamble on. A good example of this is the digital revolution that led to the creation of the first online casino and video slot. These both appeared on the scene in 1996 and a few years later, these two new forms of gambling had totally transformed the industry. People preferred online gambling to traditional forms of betting. The popularity of online gambling fuelled the creation of hundreds of slots and all these games could be played on the increasing numbers of new casinos that were popping up on a weekly basis online. These casinos not only brought change to punter’s gambling habits, they also brought about change in how the industry is regulated – click to learn more.
The Need For New Laws
With the creation of so many online casinos came problems and complaints from punters about dishonest business practices in a largely unregulated niche of the industry. With the amount of customer dissatisfaction increasing, this began to tarnish the image of gambling and something had to be done to protect consumers and their rights and importantly, drive dishonest casinos out of town. This is why the UK Gambling Commission was created and many other regulatory bodies across the globe. Their very purpose is to create a safe and honest gambling environment for punters. Even though slots are random, they still need to be tested by regulatory bodies to make sure that they haven’t been fixed in any way.
Different Regulations For Different Times
Organizations such as the UK Gambling Commission move with the times and the rules, regulations and criteria needed by online casinos to obtain a UK license, are constantly changing. This could occur if online casinos exploit flaws in certain rules, or incidents in society cause enough concern to warrant a law change. Recently, high profile stories of gambling addiction ruining people’s lives hit the headlines. This not only tarnished the industry, it made those in power aware of the problem and the UK government was pressured into acting to save the most vulnerable in society. Following a long consultation by the UK government with the relevant bodies, they made the decision to lower the maximum bet from £200 to £2 on B2 Fixed Odds Betting Terminals that are found in betting shops up and down the UK.
This was announced on 17th May 2018 and implemented in October 2019. As expected the betting shop industry is bracing itself for large drops in revenue, possible store closures and job losses.
Further Changes Ahead
The focus has now moved to online slots that are accessible to millions of people on both desktops and mobile devices. The worry here is that betting limits have not been enforced and slot play is gambling at its fastest. There are many pressure groups that want the £2 betting limit applied to online slots too and already, betting with credit cards has been recently outlawed, so the betting limit on online slots looks a hot favourite to become law any day now too.