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The UK government has introduced its consultation responses to land-based gambling regulation changes, which would increase the number of slot machines allowed in most casinos, allow debit card payments on gaming machines and sports betting in casinos.
Stuart Andrew, minister for sports, gambling and civil society, said the measures would “modernise the outdated and overly restrictive regulations that apply to the land-based gambling sector”.
Given the rise in online gambling, restrictions on availability of machines “are now less important for protecting customers than factors such as the characteristics of the product and the quality of monitoring a customer’s play in a venue”, he told parliament on Thursday (May 16).
“The legislative modernisations cannot come a moment too soon,” said John O’Reilly, chief executive of Rank Group, the UK’s biggest casino operator.
The Betting and Gaming Council hailed plans to allow cashless payments, to increase gaming machine allocations and to allow sports betting in casinos, while urging ministers to “act swiftly”.
But Andrew said the government would implement the measures “in due course”.
The original consultation ran from July 26 to October 4, 2023, following the April introduction of the gambling white paper.
Small casinos, which were originally licensed under 1968 rules, have been limited to 20 slot machines, and under planned rules would be able to increase machine numbers based on size of gambling areas to up to 80.
Large casinos approved under 2005 rules can have up to 150 slot machines.
Proposals would also loosen rules for the ratio of £2 gaming machines to lower-stake machines in bingo halls and gaming arcades.
Rank Group said it expects to be able to roughly double its number of machines in casinos from the current 1,361.
The Maidenhead, England-based company also said it expects to add sports betting to a number of its Grosvenor casinos.
Other provisions will allow it to remove “aging, reel-based machines” from its Mecca Bingo venues, while adding about 500 category B3 machines with £2 maximum stakes and £500 maximum win.
The president of Bacta, the trade group for amusement arcades and adult gaming centres, called the announcement “a good day for Bacta members”, and said he hoped the plans would be enacted into law before the next general election.
A UK general election can happen no later than January 2025.
Separately, the Gambling Commission is tightening licensing rules to require staff to check IDs of customers who look under the age of 25 rather than 21, as is the current rule, with the rule taking effect at the end of August.
It is also planning to require data quarterly from most operators, rather than annually, but the commission is asking fewer questions, the commission’s chief executive, Andrew Rhodes, told the Bingo Association at its annual meeting on May 9.
Rhodes said the commission is planning another consultation on land-based gambling this summer, but no date has been set.
“The Gambling Commission is fully committed to the implementation of the Gambling Act Review and building a more constructive relationship,” he told the bingo trade group.
