Relaxed Rules for Slot Machines in Adult Gaming Centres Paused
Plans to allow adult gaming centres in the UK to have more high-stakes slots have been paused.
Key Facts:
- There were plans to allow adult gaming centres to offer more high-stakes slots
- The UK government has paused these plans and may cancel them altogether
- This is due to concerns about how vulnerable people are being treated
Adult gaming centres (AGCs) in the UK have been growing in popularity in recent years. These venues are mostly slot machine shops that are found on high streets in town and city centres. There are over 500 of them, of which more than 300 are open 24 hours a day.
Arcades and bingo premises can also be classed as adult gaming centres. These places currently have to follow the 80/20 rule. This means that no more than 20% of the games on-site can be category B3 or above.
Category B3 games have a maximum stake of £2 and a top payout of £500. At least 80% of the games need to belong to category C or D. These games have a maximum stake of no greater than £1 and a top win of £100.
Plans to Ease Restrictions
Plans had been drawn up to ease the 80/20 rule and allow adult gaming centres to have a slightly greater percentage of high-stakes slot machines. Operators were in favour of this because they believed the 80/20 rule was preventing growth.
This is because, according to operators, most people who visit adult gaming centres want to play high-stakes games. By offering mostly low-stakes games, venues are essentially wasting space. They are also losing money by paying to run games that don’t attract many players.
In a gambling regulation white paper published in 2023, various changes were put forward that would affect both the online and real-world gambling industries. The changes considered for land-based gaming venues were generally quite reasonable.
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport said in May 2024 that it was considering introducing a new 50/50 rule or scrapping the restriction altogether. However, it’s been confirmed that the government isn’t going to make any changes to the 80/20 rule this year.
Reasons for Pausing the Plans
The government has put a hold on plans to ease restrictions for one simple reason: to protect vulnerable players. Even low-stakes slot machines can cause problems such as addiction, depression and debt. Iain Duncan Smith, the chair of a parliamentary group that examines gambling harm, has said the following:
Given the insufficient protections in place for people in these venues and the addictive nature of these machines, increasing their numbers should be ruled out entirely and the current widespread breaches of regulations by AGCs, which are now proliferating on our high streets, must be urgently looked into.– Iain Duncan Smith, Gambling Harm Group Chair Comments on Paused Slot Machine Plans, The Guardian
Someone who’s argued against the pausing of the plans is John Bollom, who is the president of Bacta, the trading body for arcades. He said that the industry is frustrated with the pausing of the plans and that updating the 80/20 rule would be safe for players and beneficial for high streets.
On the other hand, Labour MP Beccy Cooper has argued that the government should be introducing more restrictions, not easing the current ones. She thinks local councils should have more power to reduce the number of gambling venues in order to prevent gambling harms and protect players.
