The company behind Betfred has been charged £240,000 by the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) for operating slot games that failed to meet regulatory standards.

According to the Commission,Petfre (Gibraltar) Limited hosted slot games which didn’t display customer’s net position, while some other games celebrated losses as wins.

The Commission’s Remote Technical Standards (RTS) set out a number of requirements around iGaming products for UK licence holders. Requirement 14F, for example, states that products must celebrate a return ‘which is less or equal to the total stakes gambled’.

The regulator clarifies that celebrating a loss, in this sense, means auditory or visual effects associated with a win for a return which is less than or equal to a stake – so if a customer stakes £2 and wins 40p, this cannot be celebrated as a win by the slot mechanics.

In Petfre’s case, the Commission noted that the firm ‘took immediate action and promptly decommissioned all affected games’. The games were likely found on the Betfred Casino platform, with Petfre’s other products being the Betfred online sportsbook and betting shops, while its OddsKing platform states that it has ‘officially closed its doors’.

“Features that impair a consumer’s ability to make informed decisions are not appropriate and pose a clear risk,” said John Pierce, Commission Director of Enforcement.

“While we acknowledge the operator acted swiftly to remove the affected games, this enforcement action should serve as a clear signal to the wider industry to review and strengthen their compliance practices — and to ensure that gameplay is fair and consumers are not exposed to unnecessary risk.”

Slot standards

The Commission’s focus on ensuring slot operators stick to the regulatory standards outlined above stems from a concern that consumers may struggle to make informed choices and assess their slot gameplay accurately if losses are put across as wins.

Given both the financial position of slots and the current political climate around gambling in the UK, it is understandable why the Commission wants to ensure that operators rigorously stick to the standards around slot gameplay.

According to the latest Commission figures, online slot revenue saw considerable growth in the first quarter of the 2025/26 financial year. Gross gambling yield for this sector was up 14% year-over-year to £745m, with the number of spins up 8% to 24.4 billion.

Slots, meanwhile, are widely seen as carrying greater risks of problem gambling and gambling harm than other products like sports betting, horse racing betting and particularly lotteries.

This particular segment of gaming has seen tightening restrictions over the past decade, with the £2 FOBT limit on retail gaming coming into effect in 2019 and online stake limits of £5 per spin for people aged over 25 and £2 per spin for people aged between 18-24 in 2023, a recommendation of the Gambling Act review.

Meanwhile, this is the second time Betfred has been penalised for regulatory infractions, though the last one was much more significant. The firm was charged £3.25bn in 2022 after the Commission identified insufficient consumer protection and AML measures.