The UK Gambling Commission has warned online gambling operators to check that their games meet transparency and safety standards required by the regulator.
The Commission said it has issued the reminder following the discovery that “six operators were offering products providing ‘feature buy-in’ facilities on slots style games”.
These features offered players the opportunity of staking significant amounts to access the bonus feature without playing the initial stages of the base game. One game was charging more than £3,000 to enter the bonus feature, the Commission said.
The regulator reiterated its published remote gambling and software technical standards, which set out the following requirements:
- RTS requirement 3A: An explanation of the applicable rules must be easily available to the customer before they commit to gamble. The content including artwork and text must be accurate, and sufficient to explain all of the applicable rules and how to participate. All reasonable steps must be taken to ensure that the content is understandable.
- 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.
The Commission said that all six operators that had been contacted regarding use of feature buy-ins have now removed it from their sites.
The news comes days after the UK regulator confirmed that gambling using funds from credit cards would be prohibited from April.