Gambling Commission open to auto-play alternatives
Industry has until 31 July to suggest alternative means of achieving the same objectives as new auto-play limits
Great Britain’s Gambling Commission is giving operators the chance to pitch alternatives to planned auto-play restrictions while also extending the implementation deadline for a number of remote technical standards (RTS) requirements.
Amendments to the RTS will now come into force on two separate dates, with changes to auto-play functionality, loss limits and customer checks pushed back from its originally scheduled date of 31 October 2015 to 30 April 2016.
However, amendments to financial limits, automatic self-exclusion and time-out facilities will go ahead as planned at the end of October.
According to the Gambling Commission, the later deadline was agreed after operators, led by Remote Gaming Association, called for additional time to make the required technical changes.
The regulator also said it would be willing to listen to alternatives to RTS 8a, which requires operators to give customer full control over auto-play functionality, including selecting the stake and the number of auto-play gambles, up to a maximum of 25.
“We are aware that some operators have been considering alternative means of setting loss limits that would apply to auto-play and achieve the same protections for consumers,” the Gambling Commission said.
“We will consider proposals for such alternative means of meeting our requirements, or other points of clarification to be included in the RTS until 31 July 2015,” it added.
The Commission said it would then publish a revised RTS to take account of any appropriate proposals and also the extended implementation deadline.