No More Autoplay On Anything

Today – January 17th 2025 – some regulatory changes came into effect at UK facing online casinos and slot sites.  If you like to play live casino games, you’ll probably already have noticed this.

Back in October 2021, some slot game design changes were implemented for UK players as mandated by the UK Gambling Commission. The most noticeable change was the ban on autoplay which forced players to execute spins one at a time on a slot machine by repeatedly pressing the spin button, instead of being able to set up 50 or 100 spins (or even more) in advance.  These changes have now been rolled out to all online gambling games and operators have had since last May to make the necessary modifications.  There are six changes in all.

No autoplay allowed.  This is bound to cause frustration for players because while slot games sit passively until you hit the spin button again, live casino games don’t.  If you don’t place your bet in time (and the typical window is around 15 seconds) the next round takes place without you.  UK versions of such games now typically have a “rebet” button that lets you repeat your previous bet rather than placing chips individually, but get distracted even for a few seconds and you’ll miss it.  If you like to play bingo you will be relieved to hear that auto dabbing in bingo games is not considered to be autoplay because it all takes place within the same game cycle.

There must be a display of net position and time spent, visible during a gaming session.  You’ll be used to this already if you play slots.  It’s not intrusive, but can help you keep track of spending.

There must be at least 5 seconds between game cycles (apart from for slot games where the already existing 2.5 seconds between game cycles remains in force, and peer-to-peer poker).  This is unlikely to have much effect as casino game cycles like game show rounds and roulette wheel spins usually take more than 5 seconds and also have a gap of 15+ seconds between the end of the round and the beginning of the next round for players to place their bets.

No player ability to speed up game cycles – so no turbo mode, slam stops or the like.  This particular provision has quite a few exceptions.  It does not apply to bonus features where no further stake is needed.  Scratchcards can still have a “reveal all” button. And crash games are excluded because the whole point is to stop the game at the right time.

No celebration of “false wins”. This means that no celebratory sounds or animations are allowed if the amount won is less than the player’s original stake.  It only applies to game mechanics at the moment and doesn’t cover croupiers and game show hosts but the Gambling Commission has said it expects game suppliers to work on technology to help prevent live dealers from accidentally celebrating false wins.

No playing multiple games simultaneously in different windows.  Again, this is already implemented for slot games and is going to be extended to other games – and again, some of you will give a sigh of relief as peer-to-peer poker, bingo and betting are specifically excluded.  So you’ll still be able to play minigames in a bingo room while you’re waiting for the game to start.

It’s going to be interesting to see how the autoplay ban affects the popularity of live casino game shows in particular.  Perhaps players will get frustrated by keeping missing the next round and gravitate back towards slots or bingo. Perhaps the games themselves will evolve so that each game cycle takes longer and there can be a longer window before the next round.  What we can be sure of is that the more exciting and absorbing a game show is (and that includes the live hosting as well as the gameplay), the less likely it is that a player’s attention will wander with the result that they miss buying into the next round.  So say hello to even more innovation in game show design!

There’s more changes to come.  Later this year, on an as yet to be specified date, stake limits will come into force for UK players.  Under 25s will be limited to a stake of £2 or less per game cycle and everyone else to a stake of £5 or less per game cycle.  We know that slots and Slingo are going to be subject to these limits but it is not yet clear which other games and gambling products are going to fall within its remit.