In the ever-changing world of hundreds of games of online gambling, the laws and regulations are constantly under review. This is because of the unpredictable nature of this pastime that has grown in popularity year on year. What was relevant months ago may now be redundant in such a fast-moving environment, and this is why gambling laws have to constantly be updated to keep up with new trends and new problems.
The Dawn of Online Gambling
Online gambling has proved to be the making of the gambling industry and it all took off in 1996 with the introduction of the first online casino. What followed was an uncontrollable and sustained period of growth and this saw video slots become the new dominant force in online casino gambling. This development brought with it new and unforeseen problems that were left to fester for some time before action was taken to prevent everything from spiraling out of control. Unlicensed online gambling sites were the major problematic area back then and the solution that finally arrived to prevent punters from rogue traders was the formation of the UK Gambling Commission. This eventually helped to remedy this situation, but as gambling laws were relaxed under Tony Blair’s government, new problems arose such as online gambling addiction.
Where Are We Today
Gambling has been frequently making the headlines recently for all the wrong reasons. Gambling addiction has not been dealt with, and it is the main driving force behind new gambling laws that have been coming in, thick and fast. All gambling sites now have to offer players safer gambling tools such as deposit limits and session reminders. Self-exclusion and account closure are also easy options to take advantage of if needed as well.
Recently, Fixed Odds Betting Terminals bore the brunt of gambling law changes when the max betting stakes were slashed from £200 to £2. The next port of call was online gamblers for more law changes, and after a period of consultation between focus groups and politicians, the UK government announced that gambling with credit cards would no longer be an available banking option for online casinos from April 2020. This was implemented to prevent individuals from getting into debt. Whether this has had the desired effect remains to be seen.
Further Action
Other more subtle changes have been brought in recently that affect the actual gameplay of slots themselves. The act of spinning slots has been slowed down and there has to be a 2.5-second gap between each spin. The quick spin feature is no longer an option for UK punters and the gamble feature, where you can gamble your winnings for a 50/50 shot at doubling or losing that lot, will also soon be history.
Bonus buying where punters cough up an upfront fee for a guaranteed bonus is also slowly being withdrawn. If you are one of those punters that like to auto-spin a game whilst you prepare a snack or just prefer the convenience of this function, the news is that the auto spin function will also be phased out soon as well.
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