Every online slot offered to players in Great Britain must allow at least 2.5 seconds between the start of one spin and the start of the next. This is Remote Technical Standard (RTS) requirement 14D. The RTS are the Gambling Commission's technical rules for online gambling products. Requirement 14D came into force on 31 October 2021.

The rule sets the fastest pace at which a slot can be played. It is the rule at the centre of the £122,835 settlement that the Commission agreed with the software supplier Stakelogic BV. The settlement was decided on 25 June 2026.

How the 2.5 second floor works

A game cycle is one complete play: the spin, the result and the settlement of the stake. RTS 14D measures time from the start of one game cycle to the start of the next. The interval must be at least 2.5 seconds.

  • Rule: RTS requirement 14D, part of the Commission's Responsible Product Design standards.
  • Minimum interval: 2.5 seconds, start of cycle to start of next cycle.
  • Applies to: online slots.
  • In force from: 31 October 2021.
  • Legal basis: Licence Condition 2.3.1. This condition incorporates the RTS into every licence. A game that breaches 14D is therefore a breach of the licence.

The Commission's stated reason is that faster game cycles are linked to more intense play and a higher risk of harm. This is set out in its speed of play guidance.

An hour is 3,600 seconds. At a 2.5 second interval, a slot can complete at most 1,440 cycles in an hour. At 1.97 seconds, the speed found on the Stakelogic game described below, it can complete 1,827. The floor removes 387 possible spins per hour compared with that speed.

What the extra spins cost, in theory

This example is hypothetical. Say a player stakes £1 per spin on a slot with a built-in house edge of 4%. The theoretical loss is the stake multiplied by the house edge, multiplied by the number of spins. The player is assumed to spin continuously for one hour at the fastest speed the game allows.

Spins per hour at 2.5 seconds1,440
Theoretical loss at 2.5 seconds (1,440 × £1 × 4%)£57.60
Spins per hour at 1.97 seconds1,827
Theoretical loss at 1.97 seconds (1,827 × £1 × 4%)£73.08
Difference per hour£15.48

The house edge and the stake do not change. Only the number of spins changes. At the faster speed, the theoretical hourly loss is about 27% higher.

The Stakelogic case

The Commission's public statement on Stakelogic BV is the main published instance of RTS 14D being enforced. It covers two separate breaches.

Tiger Temple 88. This slot ran with 1.97 seconds between game cycles, 0.53 seconds below the minimum. It was available to GB players through several licensed operators from 28 to 30 May 2025. Stakelogic corrected the fault. It then reported it to the Commission through a Key Event submission, which is the formal notice licensees must give of certain events.

15 further games. After Commission enquiries, Stakelogic re-tested its whole GB portfolio. It found 15 more games below the minimum. The shortfalls ranged from 0.001 to 0.675 seconds. Many were short by 0.042 seconds or less. These breaches ran from 31 October 2021 to 30 October 2025. That is the full period since RTS 14D took effect.

The Commission named the cause as testing with a manual stopwatch. It described this method as open to significant inaccuracy. It also found Stakelogic's quality assurance and incident management processes deficient. John Pierce, the Commission's Director of Enforcement and Intelligence, said in the Commission's news release: "With all the technological resources available to an online gambling business, it is unacceptable that Stakelogic were relying on a manual stopwatch to measure the speed of their games."

Key dates

  1. 31 October 2021
    RTS 14D takes effect

    Breaches on the 15 further games are recorded from this date.

  2. 28 to 30 May 2025
    Tiger Temple 88 live at 1.97 seconds

    Available to GB players through several licensed operators.

  3. 30 October 2025
    All GB-facing games disabled

    Stakelogic withdrew every game from the GB market once it understood the scope of the problem.

  4. 25 June 2026
    Settlement decided

    £122,835 paid in lieu of a financial penalty, plus a public statement and a contribution to investigation costs. The money goes to the Government's Consolidated Fund.

A settlement is a payment the licensee agrees to make in place of a penalty the Commission would otherwise impose. The £5m Grosvenor settlement announced on 7 October 2026 is another example of this kind of outcome.

Not the same as the casino game rule

RTS 14D covers slots only. Non-slot casino games are covered by a separate requirement, RTS 14G, which sets a slower minimum. Poker is excluded from 14G. The Commission's guidance states that under 14G a game may run faster internally, but the player cannot start the next cycle until the minimum time has passed.

RTS 14D RTS 14G
Games covered Online slots Non-slot casino games, excluding poker
Minimum game cycle 2.5 seconds 5 seconds
In force from 31 October 2021 17 January 2025
Average loss per minute in Commission data 31.8p £1.12

The loss rate figures come from the Commission's speed of play guidance, which was last updated on 1 May 2024. The Commission gives the higher loss rate on casino games as its reason for setting the longer minimum there.

RTS 14D does not limit how long a session lasts or how much can be lost in total. It limits only how quickly one spin can follow another.

Using the rule as a player

  • If a slot is offered by a GB-licensed site, the rule applies to it. This holds whichever company made the game.
  • The rule binds the game supplier as well as the operator. The Tiger Temple 88 breach sat with the supplier, although players reached the game through licensed operators.
  • A player cannot reliably check the interval by eye or by stopwatch. The Commission itself found stopwatch timing open to significant inaccuracy at these margins.
  • At the legal minimum, a slot still allows up to 1,440 spins in an hour. The floor sets the ceiling on pace. Any limit on time or money is a separate tool, such as a deposit limit or a reality check.
  • The published records do not say whether players of the affected games were compensated. The settlement money goes to the Consolidated Fund, not to players.