The UK adult gaming center (AGC) industry has been left ‘frustrated’ as plans to ease high street slot machine regulations are put on pause.
British ministers were expected to ease restrictions on AGCs and allow them to install more higher-stakes machines. However, concerns about vulnerable customers in the sector have put the plans on pause. The relaxation of the rules was expected to go ahead this year but now could be done away with altogether.
Known as the 80/20 rule, as it stands at the moment, no more than 20% of machines in arcades and bingo halls can be category B3 – a class of slot machine with stakes of up to £2 and winnings of up to £500. The other 80% must be category C or D – where maximum stakes are £1 and maximum winnings are £100.
Slot machine operators left ‘frustrated’
Those in the AGC industry have criticized the restrictions, saying that they prohibit growth, as most customers don’t play the category C or D machines. The original plans to ease restrictions were left over from the previous Conservative government, but the Labour party coming back into power last July in the UK appears to have put the plans on pause.
In May 2024, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport said it was considering either a new 50/50 ratio or abandoning the 80/20 rule altogether. Now, the government has confirmed in a letter seen by the Guardian that no changes will be on the cards this year.
That’s not to say changes will never come; only that they’re on hold. However, the document did note “concerns about the strength of protections for vulnerable people in the adult gaming centre sector”.
“We are frustrated with the delay in resolving the 80/20 issue, which was a key modernising proposal in the gambling white paper,” John Bollom, the president of the arcades trade body, Bacta, told the Guardian. “We remain hopeful that we will see the same progress as other sectors; and that when the minister looks again she will see this reform for what it is – common sense, safe for players and good for our ailing high streets.”
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