Many people in Great Britain believe they are being subject to a nanny state, and whilst there are always going to be laws that are there to protect the public at large, when it comes to gambling there are some regulations that are causing some to question them.
One recent rule that the UK Gambling Commission decided to put into place and force every single gambling site or app that they license to abide by, is a ban on any type of game whether a slot machine or any other game, that could appeal to children.
As such, that meant that for example any slot machine that boasted a theme related to comic book characters had to be removed from the list of games available, for no other reason than children could find them appealing, and could play them, even though customers of such sites and apps need to be over the age of 18.
Being old enough to gamble is one rule in place and set in stone at any UK licensed gambling site, so people are questioning if children could find such games appealing and could play them that is an admission the system in place for age verification is failing at those sites.
However, those players that do love nothing more than playing slots that are in one way or another themed around their comic book heroes, and want to do so are not being inconvenienced, for all they have to do is to play at some alternative sites that are not licensed in Great Britain, and there are no shortages of them available.
Whilst that strange rule may puzzle some of you who for example visit land-based casinos in places such as Las Vegas or Atlantic City, where there are slot machines of every imaginable type, each themed around everything and anything, there are some even stranger rules in place, at UK gambling sites all of which go under the heading of “player protection”.
An auto-play setting for example is something else you will not see available on any game offered to players that do hold a UK issued gaming license, for the regulators believe that such an option setting causes players to gamble too quickly and puts them at risk, and as such, they have banned it from sites and gambling apps they oversee.
Using a credit card as a depositing option is also something else the regulators in Great Britain have chosen to ban, as they felt people should not be allowed to gamble using funds they are borrowing, and that means players can only deposit using funds they currently hold in their bank accounts or web wallets and not be put into a position to borrow to gamble.
That rule is in fact proving to be a well thought out one for many problem gamblers have said that if it wasn’t in place, they could have lost a fortune and run up some huge gambling debts by using the funds held on their credit card accounts to gamble with.
One other requirement that does sort of benefit players, is that gambling sites and apps are required to display the long-term expected RTP’s of each and every single one of their games.
By listing each game and its expected payout percentage, that allows players to see just how high or low the long-term paybacks are on each game and therefore make a well-balanced decision as to just which games they should play.
Those of course are the ones that have been designed to return the highest percentage of players’ stakes as winning payouts over the long term.
It remains to be seen just what other rules and regulations are put in place in the months and years ahead in the UK regarding gambling, but you can bet there will be plenty of new rules to protect players from themselves around the corner.
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