Slots in the UK - Categories of Games

Slot machines in the United Kingdom or specifically Great Britain are policed by the Gambling Act of 2005. They are known as fruit machines, but like their Australian brethren they are separated into various groups. From the initial legislation in 2005, a gambling commission was created in 2007 to regulate all gaming related activities and slots operators procure the proper operations paperwork from this agency.

So What Are the Groups?

The commission went ahead and placed the slot machines in their groups or four select categories. They aren’t named anything fancy as they are simply known as A, B, C, and D. A casino in the UK is allowed to possess at the most 20 slot machines in the B, C, and D groupings or a set amount of machines of just D or C. Very large facilities can own up to 150 slot machines that are members of the B, C, D categories. More diminutive casinos can operate as many as 80 slots within the B, C, and D groupings.

What Do They Mean?

There are no slots from category A that any citizen is legally allowed to own or operate. This is because these slots were earmarked for what is called a Super Casino. After jumping through many hoops, Manchester was chosen as the only spot in the nation to possess A slots, but when Gordon Brown became Prime Minister he terminated that program’s implementation.

B slots have subgroups that are defined by the payouts that are determined by the gaming commission and the games primarily operate on the principle of the random number generator, which simply is the odds of hitting the jackpot is independent of anything else.

So What Is The C?

These games are often called Amusement With Prizes (or AWP), famous one-armed bandits and of course fruit machines. The fruit machines usually reside in arcades, private clubs or bars. They usually have three reels with 16 to 24 images implanted on them. When a row of like images is hit, the player wins.

C games have many bonus features that increase the odds of a player hitting the jackpot and they also have an element where players can receive multiple jackpots in the same game. This is entitled a rave or a streak.

The gaming commission is very watchful of how payouts are paid. They have a certain limit on how many can be hit on a daily basis and it is rigidly adhered to.