Blogs May 28, 2020 3 min read by Alice

Do UK Game Slots Online Have Better Betting Caps? Take A Look!

Many online slot Players tend to wager low stakes ranging from £0.25 to £1 per spin. However, a small number of high rollers do exist.

These high rollers wager from anywhere between £25 to £100 per spin.

The reason is a betting cap that could limit the bets to a fairly small amount. Keep reading to know more about the betting caps on game slots online in the UK.

The history behind UK slot machines betting limits

Introduced in 2001, a fixed-odds betting terminal (FOBT) is a type of electronic slot machine found in betting shops in the United Kingdom. The terminals allow players to bet on the outcome of the slot games which have fixed odds, with the theoretical Return to Player (RTP) percentage displayed on the machine by law.

In 2018, British politicians began calling for a reduction to the minimum stake allowed on FOBTs. That said,

they had little trouble gaining support in the efforts to reduce FOBTs stakes in land-based gambling venues.

The previous maximum stakes of slot machines were set at £100. The lawmakers in question got the UKGC to reduce it to £2.

This reduction in maximum stakes was a land-mark win for anti-gambling politicians. However, it also led to thousands of job losses within the land-based casino industry.

Also, betting shops rely heavily on FOBTs to generate revenue. Smaller max bet cut into their profits and can even lead to closures. In 2018, an all-party parliamentary group (APPG) argued that online slots should also have the same betting cap as FOBTs. This movement has gained momentum in 2020.

The core argument behind the online betting cap

Some British politicians believe that betting caps on games of online slots will protect vulnerable compulsive gamblers. They argue that high-stakes play increases the potential for problem gamblers to spend money quickly.

“A review of stake limits online has been clearly recommended by the all-party parliamentary group and is long overdue,” said Labour MP Carolyn Harris.

“Online slot games should be reduced to £2 a spin in line with the rules in betting shops. The Gambling Commission must stop being reactive and take action to protect the vulnerable from harm in line with their licensing objectives,” he added.

The argument against online slots betting cap

The UK gambling industry has been particularly critical of betting caps on FOBTs. In the London gaming conference, GVC Holdings CEO Kenny Alexander said that reduced bets will simply drive high rollers and professional players elsewhere.

“If they put a £2 limit on game slots online, the day after that, virtually the same amount of people who used to stake more than £2 will go to the black market,” said Alexander.

He added that these players will look for betting opportunities at Curacao and Costa Rica-based sites, which have no interest in responsible gambling.

As highlighted by Alexander, many offshore gambling operators and jurisdictions don’t have the same commitment to protecting the players.

The other argument is that, like land-based gambling venues, online casinos will need to cut more jobs. Betting caps means less overall casino action and less revenue to these casinos.

Conclusion

As mentioned earlier, the UKGC has already set a £2 betting limits on FOBTs in traditional brick and mortar casinos. They’re likely to do the same for UK game slots online.

The idea behind this is to protect compulsive gamblers. However, it’s by no means a perfect solution. Betting limits will drive many players to offshore sites, which don’t care about problem gambling.

With that in mind, gamblers and the industry will wind up the biggest losers.

Alice

Do you go through the game review before you spin, or do you simply launch the slot and hope for the best? In case you belong to the first group, then there is a very good chance you have already read something written by Alice. Alice writes the slot reviews, the how-to-play walkthroughs, and the game guides here at Swift Casino. She is the one who sits with a new release for hours together, clicking the hamburger icon, opening up the pay table, checking where exactly the spin button has been placed on the screen, and noting down how the free spins get triggered, so that you do not have to work it all out on your own. Her interest in slots started in a fairly ordinary way, with a fruit machine in a corner of a pub and a small handful of coins, and it simply never went away after that. So what does she actually look for in a game? Volatility, mostly. Alice is of the opinion that the volatility rating tells you far more about how a session may go than the RTP percentage does, hence, she always mentions both of them, and she explains what they mean every single time, even when it starts to feel repetitive. In case a game offers a return that is lower than the industry standard, she says so plainly. She does not believe in dressing up a weak pay table with pretty adjectives. Are you tired of reviews that read like advertisements? Don’t worry, that is definitely the thing Alice tries hardest to avoid. Every win claim she writes is hedged, because slots are games of chance and you may possibly win nothing at all on a given spin. As mentioned earlier, she covers the special features too, such as the wilds, the scatters, the multipliers, the cascading reels, and more, all of which hold the potential of increasing the chances of the players landing more winning combinations. Away from the reels, Alice is a fairly boring person by her own admission. Long walks, murder mysteries, and a stubborn loyalty to a football team that keeps letting her down. She also writes our responsible gambling explainers, and she treats that work as the important one. Real gambling comes with real risk, and hence, you must play responsibly. At Swift Casino, we take the matter of responsible gambling very seriously and have an entire section dedicated to it, offering players tools for their assistance. Well then, what are you waiting for? Go through Alice’s latest reviews, pick a game that suits your style, and enjoy!

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