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Guidance

Guidance to licensing authorities

The Gambling Commission's guidance for licensing authorities.

Published
1 April 2021

Last updated
31 October 2025 - Changes

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Contents

RTS 12 – Financial limits

Applies to:

All gambling - except subscription lotteries

RTS 12 aim

To provide all customers with facilities to apply financial limits to their accounts to enable them to set and maintain a gambling budget that is suitable for their personal circumstances. 

RTS requirement 12A

The gambling system must provide easily accessible facilities for customers to set their own financial limits at any time from the point of registration. 

Customers must be prompted to set a limit as part of the registration process or at the point at which the customer makes the first deposit or payment. The limit must be implemented as soon as practicable after the customer’s request. The customer must be informed when the limit will come into force. 

RTS implementation guidance 12A

  1. Limits could be in the form of:
    1. deposit limits: where the amount a customer deposits into their account is limited over a particular duration
    2. spend limits: where the amount a customer spends on gambling (or specific gambling products) is restricted for a given period – this type of limit may be appropriate where the customer does not hold a deposit account with the operator
    3. loss limits: where the amount lost (that is, winnings subtracted from the amount spent) is restricted (for instance when a customer makes a £10 bet and wins £8, the loss is £2).
  2. The period/duration of the limits on offer should include:
    1. 24 hours and
    2. 7 days and
    3. one month
  3. where a customer sets simultaneous time frames, for example a daily deposit limit and a weekly limit, the lowest limit should always apply. Therefore if a daily deposit limit of £10 and a weekly limit of £100 are both set then the maximum the system should allow to be deposited is £10 per day and £70 per week.

RTS requirement 12B

Customers must be presented with a ‘free text’ box to set a limit, or the equivalent in the case of telephone gambling. 

As a minimum, limits must be applied at the account level. 

RTS implementation guidance 12B

  1. In addition to account-level limits, limits could be implemented across individual products or channels. Where gambling licensees offer the facility to set limits for individual products or channels it should be made clear to customers using the facility whether those limits apply at the account or product/channel level. For example, where a limit has been set for a specific game, a customer should not be misled into assuming that the limit automatically applies to other products.
  2. Where a customer sets simultaneous time frames, gambling licensees should provide clear information on how the interaction between those limits works.
  3. Operators could provide links to tools or resources to inform budgeting and aid customers in determining appropriate limits for their personal circumstances.
  4. In order to mitigate against user error, the gambling system could permit specific monetary increments for limits, such as whole pounds.

RTS requirement 12C

Financial limit facilities must be provided via a direct link on the homepage and be clearly visible and accessible. 

Financial limit facilities must be clearly visible and accessible on deposit pages/screens or via a direct link on these pages or screens. 

The gambling system must minimise the number of clicks or pages customers make in order to access financial limit facilities. 

RTS implementation guidance 12C

  1. Links to limit-setting facilities from communications such as emails or notifications should link directly to the facilities and not via a home page or other intermediate page(s), unless required by account log in security settings.

RTS requirement 12D

Customer-led limits must only be increased at the customer’s request, only after a cooling-off period of at least 24 hours has elapsed and only once the customer has taken positive action at the end of the cooling off period to confirm their request. 

Unless systems/technical failures prevent it, customer-led reductions to limits must be implemented immediately.  

The gambling system must provide a prompt to customers to review their own account and transaction information, as is currently made available under RTS 1 – Customer account information. This must be provided at a minimum of six-month intervals for accounts with activity within a rolling 12-month period. Customers must be provided with facilities to set more frequent reminders to receive this statement and review their limits. 

RTS implementation guidance 12D

  1. In the event of systems or technical failure not facilitating an automated and/or immediate reduction in limits, the customer should be informed when the limit reduction will take effect.
  2. Operators should monitor engagement with and responses to alerts, in order to inform good design and best practice.

RTS requirement 12E

Financial limit-setting facilities must present setting a limit as the default choice. The gambling system must require an action by the customer in order to decline setting a limit. 

The gambling system must receive confirmation that the customer does not wish to set a limit before moving on to deposit/gamble. 

The gambling system must prompt existing customers without limits set to review this position as a minimum on an annual basis.

RTS implementation guidance 12E

  1. Presentation of financial limits as the default option could take the form of pre-selected fields such as tick boxes, or through visual distinction.
  2. Action to decline setting a limit and receiving confirmation could take the form of a tick box, dismissing a message or other action by the customer.
  3. Customers who choose to opt out of setting a limit could be provided with information or links to tools and resources such as budgeting tools and information about safer gambling.
    4.  
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