In Great Britain, online gambling is legal only through a licence. Under the Gambling Act 2005, providing gambling facilities to people in Great Britain without a Gambling Commission licence is a criminal offence, with limited exceptions. For online operators the test is whether the facilities are used in Great Britain, not where the company is based. The Commission’s licence conditions then decide what a player can be offered and on what terms.
Not every operator sits inside that system. Some overseas operators fall outside the Gambling Commission’s jurisdiction, and a search for Rocket Play sign up leads to a site of that kind. The rules below apply to licensees, and they don’t bind such a site in the same way. That gap is the clearest argument for why the rules exist.
Bonuses Now Have a Ceiling
Since 19 January 2026, no licensee can attach a wagering requirement of more than 10 times the bonus. The limit sits in the Commission’s licence conditions and applies to all licences, with an exception for gaming machine technical and software licences.
Take a £100 bonus. At the cap, a player must wager £1,000 before the bonus funds can be withdrawn. At 40 times the same bonus would have needed £4,000 of play, and the Commission noted that some licensees were applying requirements of up to 60 times before the change. A 40x term would now breach the cap.
Slots Have Design Rules
Slots are the product where the rulebook gets specific. The main limits on online slots:
- Maximum stake per game cycle: £5 for players aged 25 and over, in force since 9 April 2025
- Maximum stake for players aged 18–24: £2, in force since 21 May 2025
- Minimum time between the start of one game cycle and the next: 2.5 seconds
- Scope: reel-based online slots only, so roulette and blackjack are not covered
A separate set of technical standards covers transparency. Before a player commits to a game, the operator has to make information on the chances of winning easily available. That means a description of how the game works and how winners are decided, plus the house edge, the return-to-player percentage or the probability of winning. The standard lists these as options, so a game may show one measure and not all three.
RTP Is an Average, Not a Promise
Return to player (RTP) is the share of stakes a game is designed to pay back over a very large number of plays. A 96% RTP means that across millions of spins, the game returns £96 for every £100 staked on average. It is a long-run figure.
It does not describe what any one player will get. A single session on a 96% game can end well above or well below that number, including a total loss of the stake. RTP also says nothing about how often wins land or how big they are, which is a separate feature of the game called volatility.
Comparing games on RTP still has some use. The gap between 96% and 88% is a house edge of 4% against 12%. But that is the maths of the game over time, not a forecast for the next spin.
Enforcement Reaches Beyond Licence Holders
The Commission’s 2024/25 annual report gives a sense of the scale. It sent 516 cease and desist requests to illegal operators, up from 384 the year before, and another 352 to advertisers and affiliates of unlicensed operators. After referrals to search engines, 95,705 illegal gambling URLs were removed.
Advertising is covered by law too. Section 330 of the Gambling Act prohibits advertising unlawful gambling, and sponsorship deals count. The government has now gone further on the sponsorship side. On 15 July 2026 the Department for Culture, Media and Sport opened a consultation on banning sponsorship and advertising arrangements with operators that don’t hold a Commission licence. It would cover kit, pitch-side boards and naming rights, with online advertising left out for now. Responses closed on 9 September, and the department plans to say before the end of 2026 whether it will legislate. For now it is a proposal, not law.
Rules Change Quickly
Stake limits arrived in 2025, the bonus cap in January 2026, and a sponsorship ban is under consultation. Guidance that is a year old can already be out of date, so check when a rule took effect before relying on it. And whatever the current rules say, they only protect people inside the licensed system.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational and entertainment purposes only. It does not constitute legal, financial, or gambling advice. Online gambling carries risks, and statistically players stand a higher chance of losing their stake. You should only gamble what you can afford to lose, and participate if you are over the legal age in your jurisdiction. Always gamble responsibly and within your means. If you or someone you know is experiencing problems with gambling, seek help from a professional support service such as GamCare or BeGambleAware.