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Guidance

Guidance to licensing authorities

The Gambling Commission's guidance for licensing authorities.

Published
1 April 2021

Last updated
25 February 2025 - Changes

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Contents

RTS 14 – Responsible product design

Applies to:

In respect of requirements RTS 14A and 14B – All gambling.

In respect of requirement RTS 14C – Casino (excluding peer-to-peer poker).

In respect of requirement RTS 14D – Slots.

In respect of requirement RTS 14E and 14F – Casino.

In respect of requirement RTS 14G – Casino (excluding slots and peer-to-peer poker).

RTS aim 14

To ensure that products are designed responsibly and to minimise the likelihood that they exploit or encourage problem gambling behaviour.

RTS requirement 14A

Gambling products must not actively encourage customers to chase their losses, increase their stake or increase the amount they have decided to gamble, or continue to gamble after they have indicated that they wish to stop.

RTS implementation guidance 14A

  1. By actively encourage, we mean the inclusion of specific features, functions or information that could reasonably be expected to encourage a greater likelihood of the behaviours described occurring. For example:
    1. the amount of funds taken into a product should not be topped up without the customer choosing to do so on each occasion, for example, when a customer buys-in at a poker table they should have to choose to purchase more chips to play at the table, automatic re-buys should not be provided
    2. written or graphical information should not encourage customers to try to win back their losses
    3. customers who have chosen to exit a game should not be encouraged to continue playing by, for example, being offered a free game.
  2. This requirement is not intended to prevent operators from offering special features or well-known games such as blackjack that allow customers to increase their stake on the occurrence of specific events (for example, split).

RTS requirement 14B

Consumers must not be given the option to cancel their withdrawal request.

RTS implementation guidance 14B

Once a customer has made a request to withdraw funds, they should not be given the option to deposit using these funds. Operators should make the process to withdraw funds as frictionless as possible.

RTS requirement 14C

The gambling system must not offer functionality which facilitates playing multiple slots games at the same time.

RTS implementation guidance 14C

  1. Operators are not permitted to offer functionality designed to allow players to play multiple slots at the same time. This includes, but is not limited to, split screen or multi-screen functionality.
  2. Combining multiple slots titles in a way which facilitates simultaneous play is not permitted.

RTS requirement 14D

It must be a minimum of 2.5 seconds from the time a game is started until the next game cycle can be commenced. It must always be necessary to release and then depress the 'start button’ or take equivalent action to commence a game cycle.

RTS implementation guidance 14D

A game cycle starts when a player depresses the ‘start button’ or takes equivalent action to initiate the game and ends when all money or money’s worth staked or won during the game has been either lost or delivered to, or made available for collection by the player and the start button or equivalent becomes available to initiate the next game.

A player should commit to each game cycle individually, continued contact with a button, key or screen should not initiate a new game cycle.

RTS requirement 14E

The gambling system must not permit a customer to reduce the time until the result is presented.

RTS implementation guidance 14E

  1. Features such as turbo, quick spin and slam stop are not permitted. This is not intended to be an exhaustive list but to illustrate the types of features the requirement is referring to.
  2. This applies to all remote games, regardless of game cycle speed.
  3. This requirement does not apply to bonus and/or feature games where an additional stake is not wagered.
  4. This requirement does not prohibit the ‘scratch-all’ and/or ’reveal-all’ feature.
  5. This requirement does not prohibit games where the customer will lose their stake unless they take action to end the game.

RTS requirement 14F

The gambling system must not celebrate a return which is less than or equal to the total stake gambled.

RTS implementation guidance 14F

  1. By ‘celebrate’ we mean the use of auditory or visual effects that are associated with a win are not permitted for returns which are less than or equal to last total amount staked.
  2. The following items provide guidelines for reasonable steps to inform the customer of the result of their game cycle:
    1. Display of total amount awarded.
    2. Winning lines displayed for a short period of time that will be considered sufficient to inform the customer of the result. This implementation should not override any of the display requirements (as set out in RTS 7E).
    3. Brief sound to indicate the result of the game and transfer to player balance.

RTS requirement 14G

It must be a minimum of 5 seconds from the time a game is started until the next game cycle can be commenced. It must always be necessary to release and then depress the 'start button’ or take equivalent action to commence a game cycle.

RTS implementation guidance 14G

A game cycle starts when a player depresses the ‘start button’ or takes equivalent action to initiate the game and ends when all money or money’s worth staked or won during the game has been either lost or delivered to, or made available for collection by the player and the start button or equivalent becomes available to initiate the next game.

A player should commit to each game cycle individually, continued contact with a button, key or screen should not initiate a new game cycle.

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