The slot autoplay ban means no UK-licensed online slot can spin by itself: since 31 October 2021 every spin needs its own press, and since 17 January 2025 the same rule has covered roulette, blackjack and other online casino games. Here is what the standard says, what it changes in pounds and minutes, and how to spot a site ignoring it.
The same package of changes removed features that sped play up or disguised losses: turbo and slam-stop, celebratory sounds for returns smaller than the stake, and it required slots to show how long you have been playing and your net position.
A common misunderstanding
Holding the spacebar or tapping quickly is not autoplay; each press still starts one spin, and none can start sooner than 2.5 seconds after the last.
How to check a site follows it
Look for an auto or autoplay button in a slot. A licensed British site has none.
Coral and Ladbrokes are both run by LC International Limited (Entain). If you already hold an account with one Entain brand, you may not be able to open a new account with another; check the terms before signing up.
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Read the Coral reviewLicence: LC International Limited, UKGC account 54743. Offer checked 5 October 2026.
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Read the PlayOJO reviewLicence: Skill On Net Limited, UKGC account 39326. Offer checked 5 October 2026.
Significant terms: 18+. New customers only, from 14/11/25 until further notice. Certain deposit methods excluded. Deposit and spend £10+ on slots for 50 free spins a day during the first 10 days after first deposit and registration (max 500, £0.10 each, selected games, claim before 23:59 each day, valid 7 days). No wagering. Prepaid cards, PayPal, Paysafe, Neteller, Skrill and Moneybookers deposits do not qualify. Restrictions and T&Cs apply. GamCare.org.uk
Read the Ladbrokes reviewLicence: LC International Limited, UKGC account 54743. Offer checked 5 October 2026.
What counts as autoplay
Any setting that starts spins without a fresh action from the player: a fixed number of automatic spins, spins until a feature, or spins until a loss limit. All were removed from online slots in Britain in 2021.
What replaced it
Nothing. Each spin needs a press. Some games let you hold the spin button, but each spin still has to complete and take at least 2.5 seconds.
How to use it as a check
An autoplay button on a slot means you are playing a version intended for another country, usually on a site that is not licensed here.
What the UK autoplay rule says: RTS 8C in plain English
The autoplay ban lives in the Gambling Commission's Remote Gambling and Software Technical Standards (opens in a new tab), the technical rulebook that every licensed online operator and game supplier has to meet. The requirement, numbered RTS 8C, says each game cycle must be started individually by the customer. A game cycle runs from the moment you stake until the result is settled and any winnings are paid, so one press can never commit you to a second, third or hundredth round.
The standard does not list forbidden buttons one by one. It describes the outcome instead: nothing in the game may begin a new cycle without a fresh instruction from you. That is why it catches every flavour of auto-spin, from a plain '50 spins' menu to 'spin until a feature lands' or 'stop if my balance falls below £20'. Each of those settings would start later rounds without you acting, so none can appear in a game built for the British market.
There is one narrow exception, and it has nothing to do with games played against the house: blinds can still be posted automatically in peer-to-peer poker, where players compete against each other rather than the operator. Slots, roulette, blackjack, baccarat, video poker and house-banked poker games get no carve-out. The wider package of online game design rules sits alongside RTS 8C and covers speed, celebrations and on-screen information.
Where the UK autoplay ban applies (October 2026)
Product
Autoplay allowed?
Since
Online slots (reel-based games)
No
31 October 2021
RNG roulette, blackjack, baccarat and video poker
No
17 January 2025
House-played poker, such as three card poker
No
17 January 2025
Peer-to-peer poker
Automatic posting of blinds only
Exception written into the standard
Sites without a British licence
They ignore the rule
No UK protection applies
Autoplay on roulette and blackjack: the 2025 extension to all casino games
For three years the ban applied only to slots. That changed on 17 January 2025, after the Commission's summer 2023 consultation and its response published on 1 May 2024. From that date autoplay has been barred across online casino products, including online roulette, online blackjack, baccarat and house-played poker such as three card poker. The same package introduced a minimum of 5 seconds per game cycle for non-slot casino games, banned playing several games at once, and required those games to show your net position and the time elapsed.
This matters because many older guides, including the short answer that used to sit on this page, say the autoplay ban is a slots-only rule. That was true between October 2021 and January 2025. It has not been true since. The separate table game speed rules explain the 5-second minimum in more detail.
Auto Roulette is not autoplay
Live lobbies often include a game called Auto Roulette. The name refers to the wheel: the ball is launched by a machine rather than a croupier, which keeps rounds coming at a steady pace. It says nothing about your bets being placed for you. You still decide whether to put chips down in each round, and sitting out simply means that round passes without you.
Rebet buttons and bet behind
A rebet or repeat button that copies last round's chips is a shortcut for choosing your stake, not autoplay, because you still have to press it each round. Bet behind in live blackjack works the same way: you choose each hand you back. A setting that kept re-placing chips round after round with no action from you would be the thing the rule is aimed at. If a table offers any repeat-play option, its game help screen should explain how it works.
Autoplay ban timeline: every key date from 2021 to 2026
The auto-spin ban arrived as part of a bigger set of changes, and it has been tightened and enforced since. These are the dates that matter for UK players, taken from the Commission's own publications.
UK autoplay ban and related game design dates
Date
What happened
2 February 2021
The Commission publishes its response on online game design and reverse withdrawals, confirming the slot autoplay ban
31 October 2021
Autoplay, turbo and slam-stop disappear from online slots; the 2.5-second minimum spin time begins
1 May 2024
Response to the summer 2023 consultation confirms the design rules will extend to other casino games
17 January 2025
Autoplay ban extended to all online casino games; 5-second minimum game cycle for non-slot games
9 April and 21 May 2025
£5 (25 and over) and £2 (18 to 24) per-spin stake limits start, capping what each manual spin can cost
25 June 2026
Stakelogic BV agrees to pay £122,835 after some of its slots ran faster than the 2.5-second minimum
Why the auto-spin ban matters: worked pound examples
An autoplay menu used to let you choose a run of spins and step away. Picture 100 spins at 50p: one tap committed £50 of stakes with no further decision. On a slot with a 96% return to player, the long-run average cost is 4% of everything staked, so about £2. A single run of 100 spins rarely lands on the average, though. Depending on the game's volatility, you could easily be £30 or £40 down by the hundredth spin with no feature landed, or ahead after one good bonus round.
Under the ban those 100 spins are 100 separate choices. The maths of each spin is unchanged, but the commitment is made one press at a time, and the 2.5-second floor means a block of 100 spins takes at least four minutes and ten seconds.
What 100 manual spins cost on a 96% RTP slot
Stake per spin
Total staked
Average cost at 96% RTP
Minimum time at 2.5 seconds a spin
10p
£10
40p
4 min 10 s
50p
£50
£2
4 min 10 s
£1
£100
£4
4 min 10 s
£2 (cap for ages 18 to 24)
£200
£8
4 min 10 s
£5 (cap for ages 25 and over)
£500
£20
4 min 10 s
The 'average cost' column is the house edge at work over a long run; it is not a prediction for any single session. Our RTP guide explains why the figure on a slot's help screen describes millions of spins rather than your next hundred.
Autoplay myths vs facts for UK slot players
Because the ban changed the look of every slot overnight, a few misunderstandings have stuck. Here are the ones we see repeated most often, set against what the standards actually say.
Common beliefs about the UK auto-spin ban
Myth
Fact
The autoplay ban lowered slot RTP
No. It changed how spins start, not the maths. A game's RTP comes from its design and is shown on its help screen.
A bonus round that plays itself breaks the rule
No. Once a feature triggers, its spins normally belong to the same game cycle as the spin that triggered it, so they can play out without extra presses.
Casino apps are exempt
No. The standard applies to the game wherever a licensed operator offers it: desktop, mobile site or app.
Promotional spins from an offer run automatically
Each spin credited by an offer is normally a separate game cycle, so each one still needs its own press.
A quick-spin setting is just a gentler autoplay
Quick spin is banned separately: RTS 14E stops any setting that shortens the time until the result appears.
Auto-spin is fine on foreign sites if you live in Britain
A site serving British players without a Commission licence is operating unlawfully, and you lose UK protections such as GAMSTOP and approved dispute resolution.
The turbo spin glossary entry explains the banned speed-up setting in more detail.
Slots with autoplay at sites not on GAMSTOP: what you give up
The most common place a British player still meets an auto-spin button is an offshore site marketed as one of the 'casinos not on GAMSTOP'. The button itself is only a symptom: it shows the game was built for another market. What matters more is everything else that disappears along with the British licence.
No £5 or £2 cap on what a single slot spin can cost.
No 10x limit on bonus wagering, which has applied since 19 January 2026.
No duty to join GAMSTOP, so a self-exclusion does not reach the site.
No requirement to offer approved alternative dispute resolution such as IBAS (opens in a new tab) if a withdrawal is refused.
No ban on reverse withdrawals or on crediting a deposit from a credit card.
Staying in control without auto-spin: limits, reality checks and time-outs
The autoplay ban is one layer of protection, and it works best alongside the tools every licensed casino has to offer. Since 31 October 2025 operators have had to prompt you to set a financial limit before your first deposit, with setting one as the default. The deposit limit rules explain what operators must offer, and the net position display rule explains the running total that slots have to show.
Set a deposit limit in the account's safer gambling area before your first deposit; reductions take effect straight away.
Switch on a reality check so a reminder appears after a set time, such as every 30 minutes.
Keep an eye on the net position figure on screen, which shows how much you are up or down in the session.
Choose a stake and a number of spins before you open the game, and stop when you reach either.
Free demo versions follow the same design rules, and since May 2019 they can only be played once your age has been verified, as the demo game rules explain. The full process for raising a dispute is in our guide to complaining about a casino.
Everything here is dated. Offers and facts were last checked on 5 October 2026; this is not a live feed. Casino details come from each casino's published terms and help pages and the Gambling Commission's public register. How we check. 18+. Free help: 0808 8020 133 or safer gambling.
Frequently asked questions
Is autoplay allowed in the UK?
No, autoplay is not allowed on any online casino game offered by a UK-licensed operator. Slots lost the feature on 31 October 2021, and from 17 January 2025 the ban was extended to roulette, blackjack, baccarat, video poker and other online casino games. The rule sits in the Commission's technical standards (RTS 8C), which require each game cycle to be started individually by the player. The only exception is the automatic posting of blinds in peer-to-peer poker. If you see an auto-spin button, the game is not a British build, which usually means the site has no British licence. The wider UK slot rules cover the related speed and stake limits.
When was it banned?
Autoplay was banned on online slots from 31 October 2021 and on all other online casino games from 17 January 2025. The Commission confirmed the slot ban in its February 2021 response on online game design, alongside the 2.5-second minimum spin time and the removal of turbo and slam-stop features. The extension to table games and other casino products followed its summer 2023 consultation, with the decision published on 1 May 2024 and the rules taking effect in January 2025. Both stages are on our timeline of UK casino changes, with the earlier rules grouped under 2020 to 2024.
Does it apply to table games?
Yes, since 17 January 2025 the autoplay ban has applied to online table games as well as slots. Between October 2021 and January 2025 it covered slots only, which is why some older pages, including an earlier version of this answer, describe it as a slots rule. The 2025 extension brought RNG roulette, blackjack, baccarat, video poker and house-played poker into scope, together with a minimum of 5 seconds per game cycle on non-slot games. A rebet button is still allowed, because you press it each round. The table game speed rules and online roulette guide explain how this looks in practice.
Why was it banned?
Autoplay was banned because it let players commit to long runs of spins without making a decision each time, which the Commission linked to losing track of time and money. Removing it puts a moment of choice before every game cycle. The Commission's 2021 review of online game design looked at features that increased the speed and intensity of play or made it harder to keep control, and autoplay sat alongside turbo spins, slam-stop and celebrations of losing results. Taken together, the changes aim to slow play down and keep players aware of their spending. The game design rules page sets out each part of that package.
How do I know an offer page is out of date?
An offer page is out of date if it shows wagering above 10 times the bonus, or a sports bet that earns casino spins, because both have been banned since 19 January 2026. Other giveaways include describing 'light-touch' or 'enhanced' affordability checks as live rules, sending readers to the old GambleAware helpline site, or mentioning auto-spin features on UK slots. A dated page should also tell you when the offer terms were last read. Our guide to spotting an outdated offer lists the warning signs, and the 10x wagering cap page explains the current limit.
Is autoplay allowed on slots?
No, autoplay has not been allowed on online slots at UK-licensed casinos since 31 October 2021. Each spin must be started by a separate press, and each must take at least 2.5 seconds from the start of one game cycle to the start of the next. Turbo and quick-spin modes are banned too, as are slam-stop buttons that cut a spin short. A bonus round triggered during a spin can still play out without extra presses, because its spins form part of the same game cycle. The 2.5-second spin rule explains the speed limit, and the online slots guide covers how UK games work today.
Can I buy a slot's bonus round?
No, slots supplied to UK-licensed casinos don't offer a feature buy or bonus buy option. In some other markets you can pay a multiple of your stake to go straight to the bonus round, but the British versions of those games leave the button out and the feature only arrives through normal play. No Commission rule or start date confirms a formal ban, so it is best described as how games are supplied to Great Britain rather than a dated rule. The no bonus buy page explains the background, and how slot bonus rounds work covers the triggers.
What if I have a complaint about a casino?
Complain to the casino first, using its published complaints procedure, and keep copies of everything you send. The operator has 8 weeks to resolve your complaint. If it has not done so by then, or you are unhappy with the final response, it must offer to refer you to an independent alternative dispute resolution provider such as IBAS, which is free for players. The Gambling Commission does not settle individual disputes, though it does take reports about rule breaches. Our complaints and ADR guide explains each stage, and IBAS's dispute page (opens in a new tab) shows how to submit a case.
How current is this page?
This page shows the date it was last checked at the top, and the rule details were checked against the Gambling Commission's published standards, consultation responses and news releases in October 2026. Offer details in the boxes were read from each casino's published terms on 5 October 2026 and can change at any time, so the casino's own terms always take priority. When a rule changes, we update the page and the date. The latest casino rules hub lists every rule with its start date, and how we check explains our sources.
Is autoplay banned on online roulette in the UK?
Yes, autoplay has been banned on online roulette at UK-licensed casinos since 17 January 2025. Each spin of an RNG roulette game must be started by you, and each game cycle must last at least 5 seconds. A rebet button that repeats your last chips is still allowed because you press it each round. Live games called Auto Roulette are different: the name describes a machine-launched ball, not bets being placed for you, so you still choose whether to play each round. The European roulette guide covers the game itself, and the table game speed rules explain the timing.
Why do some slots on YouTube still have an autoplay button?
Slots shown with an autoplay button in videos are versions made for other markets, not the builds supplied to UK-licensed casinos. Many studios release one game in several versions so it can meet different countries' rules. The British version leaves out autoplay, turbo, slam-stop and feature buys, and enforces a 2.5-second minimum per spin. Streamers often play on sites licensed elsewhere, which is why their screens look different. If a site taking UK players shows those controls, treat it as a warning sign and check it on the register. Our new casino red flags page lists other signs to look for.
Does the autoplay ban apply to casino apps?
Yes, the autoplay ban applies to casino apps in exactly the same way as to desktop and mobile websites. The technical standards attach to the game and the operator's licence, not to the device you use, so a UK-licensed app cannot offer auto-spin on slots or automatic play on table games. The same goes for the 2.5-second spin minimum, the 5-second minimum on other casino games and the £5 and £2 stake limits. If an app shows an autoplay setting, check who runs it before depositing. Our mobile casino guide explains how to find the licence details inside an app.
What happens if a UK casino offers autoplay?
A UK-licensed casino that offers autoplay would be breaching the Commission's technical standards, which can lead to regulatory action against the operator or the game supplier. In June 2026, for example, Stakelogic BV agreed to pay £122,835 after some of its slots ran faster than the 2.5-second minimum, showing that game design rules are enforced. As a player, take a screenshot, raise it with the casino in writing and pass the details to the Commission. Our Gambling Commission fines page lists recent enforcement cases and what they were for.
Does the autoplay ban apply to online poker?
It depends on the type of poker. House-played games such as three card poker, casino hold'em and video poker have fallen under the autoplay ban since 17 January 2025, so each hand must be started by you and non-slot games must take at least 5 seconds per game cycle. Peer-to-peer poker, where you play against other people rather than the casino, is treated differently: the standard allows blinds to be posted automatically there, and the 5-second minimum does not apply. The casino hold'em guide explains how the house-played version works.
Gambling can be addictive. Free, confidential help is available 24 hours a day from the National Gambling Helpline on 0808 8020 133. Get free support from GamCare or NHS gambling support, or block yourself from all UK-licensed gambling sites with GAMSTOP.
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