Need your input: Has online gambling actually become less fun?

[Webzcas]

For those of you who have been playing online for a good while, as the thread title asks, has online gambling actually become less fun? If so why?

Compare online gambling in 2005/2010/2015 with 2026: regulation, game mechanics, bonuses, stakes, RTP, verification and the social/community side.

Has overregulation ruined in the main your enjoyment, or do you see it as a positive in the main, that in many regulated territories online casinos are no longer akin to the wild west of old. Even if it does mean you have to encounter and deal with SOW checks, KYC etc etc

 

[Mr Shine]

Pretty much all the oldschool slots have been phased out. I'm not a fan of the Le Fire Money or a Wild 7 types of slots, I'd be happy playing nothing made in the last 20 years.

RTP has gone down the pan completely. Virtually nowhere will give you a fair game.

A lot of my favourite table game versions (like Power Blackjack, Hot Streak Blackjack, Pontoon and Double Attack Blackjack) have just disappeared, with no better ones replacing them.

The UKGC seems to only decide what will piss off gamblers reather that trying to advocate for or protect them.

 

[Webzcas]

The UKGC seems to only decide what will piss off gamblers reather that trying to advocate or protect them.

To their credit they have actually brought in a lot of good measures. Getting rid of the reverse withdrawal "feature" is one such great move.

However, it really does seem that for every decent piece of regulation introduced and enforced on their licensees, they introduce at least two badly thought out and ultimately industry damaging pieces of regulation.

 

[Nate]

It has become less fun for me. I think, software providers are literally in a race to release new games - just for the sake of it.

They want to remain relevant.

Most of them seem to be variations of existing mechanics. Pragmatic play is a prime example of rehashing the same 5 slots into 1000, 2500 and other variants.

Each rehash becomes less interesting than the last. Just like the megaways hype...

Nate

 

[cheekymonkey]

I miss the days of 32 red, laddies, hills etc. Everything was on first name terms, bonuses chucked at you a few times a week, birthday bonuses, days out, trips abroad, sporting events, poker events all for free. Mental times.

Now, it's just constant stress and even fear that you have been playing for over an hour and will be contacted by a casino hit squad telling you how much of a degenerate you are and that you have been locked out for a week, FOR YOUR OWN GOOD.

BTW, I really miss MG viper software. That was just absolute bliss and with beautiful smooth gameplay as well. None of this clunky crap that's around these days.

Early 2000s was peak entertainment for casino and poker, good times.

COST ME A BLOODY FORTUNE THOUGH.

 

[Wait!What?]

I started in 2015. I saw changes after 2023.

Signing up- nothing has changed.
Nice to see lots of casinos offering multi currencies.
Payments - lots of payment methods have been introduced. Cryptos were game changers but sadly some crypto exchanges hold gambling withdrawals. Casinos in this case refuse to help.
Bonus offers- casinos are now coming up with extended match deposit offers but wager is still 40x.
Games- Lots of innovation but sadly rtp has gone down.
Slots have become highly volatile which in turn has killed the base game. If you have multiple features in base game you may survive. Providers are pushing you to do extra bets for upgraded bonuses. Some slot providers have now applied restrictions to my region. Vpn is the only solution in this cases so I am being pushed towards vpn friendly casinos.
Verification
Pain in the ass. Just a form of harassment in my opinion. I am ok with passport and bank statement. Passport selfie is the maximum I can do.
Cashouts- Apart from a handful of casinos everybody else is taking a minimum of 3 days. Gameplay under review is their reasoning. Back in the day 24 hours was the norm.
Player retention- bonuses and cashback- Reload offers are usually 50% and you need to be careful of the bonus ratio. Cashback is mostly with wager, in some cases even 10x. Dont think this was more than 1x back in the day.
Livechat
Barely any casino where you connect directly to human agent. You are made to go through a few AI questions and then passed on to a human agent. In some cases human agent is not even an option and they make you go back to the starting menu.

After posting I realised its too much to read.

 

[lukey141]

It was going to happen eventually but there's just endless reskins and not enough innovation.


We don't need a 20th 'Le' game or a 50th Big Bass or every old game getting a X 1000 or X 2500 version added.

Decreased RTP, loss of turbo/auto feature are also massive negatives for the UK market in specific.

 

[dunover]

Bit late to the races with this thread.

It's been less fun for the best part of a decade.

Funnily enough (although not connected in any way!) since about the same time B*n*nz* was released.

 

[Jono777]

Play time = less
Bonuses = way less and smaller, rather have a decent bonus at 40x than crap at 10x
Withdrawals = way less often, play style and discipline not changed my end
Winning sessions = (holding balance with small or no withdrawal) way less

Too many HV slots or previously great / fair games with now altered math's model trashing them (IR, RR, DoA)

UK regulation is, apart from odd decent rule (no credit cards is all I can think of as I type...) a JOKE and all but destroyed the whole A-Z or slotting for UK players.

Casinos are forced to jump through way too may hoops, end user suffers due to this.

 

[megadam]

It has absolutely become less fun for both UKGC and Crypto casinos.

UKGC side of things, the fun's been stripped away in making it monotonous without auto plays, all of the sensible ante bets pretty much being stripped and the RTP's taking a nosedive because of a cross between greedy casinos wanting to bleed customers and the UK government chasing tax growth in a place that was already on a knife-edge.

Then you have the crypto casinos which at first were offering competitive, decent reward schemes that were offering what UK casinos did in the old days. They offered the freedom and flexibility to gamble at the highest-RTPs (Or in some cases even special higher RTP versions of the same slots) and auto play and bonus buy to your heart's content. Now it's become a cess-pit for the lowest rung bottom feeders with dodgy crypto scamming casinos, insanely illegal aggressive marketing and bonus/reward schemes that really aren't all that competitive anymore. (See NoTextToSpeech youtube video on Rainbet, it's insane)

Then let's come to the slots themselves. A majority of the providers have made it a race to the bottom with volatile maths models now being the norm. Where you'd get playtime and reasonable expectation of a bonus is now replaced by having 2-50x ante bets to get the hope of having a bonus frequency the same as what you usually had. Good luck ever getting a decent hit without going through several deposits worth of funds just to get there and overall I've had more 0-5x bonuses in the last year than I have had ever.

And then you've got the copy-and-paste providers coming out of the wood-work on these scammy casinos. The butterslots, valkyrie slots that are literal hacksaw and pragmatic clones but with even more questionable legitimacy. But hey they promote themselves on being different yet the mechanics are the same, the math is even more nuts than a rigged NLC slot and no I'm really not enjoying opening a game and seeing a 10x ante bet being the norm and the bonus doesn't even land anyway.

It's a race to the bottom, it isn't fun anymore and the creativity is completely and utterly dead.

 

[YouTubeSlots]

I agree with what's mostly already been said, Around the time when slotting got big on Twitch TV was the start of the downfall of the industry for me.

I truly will go to my grave believing the game Raging Rhino, Montezuma and many others have been nuked to the ground. Along with a whole other bunch of games that were secretly changed. Yet still claiming to run at the same RTP.

This is fact. I will debate it with anyone, If you played a slot machine every day near enough, Then they re released that same game, you would notice if its the same or not. And those 2 games were my fav games ever. Played them everyday. Streamed them etc. Raging rhino is now a dead spin simulator all rhinos deleted from the reels. Montezuma also shares the same bullshit maths model now.



How they can get away with re releasing the game yet its nothing like the game you once played is beyond me. Also notice how Dazza G was a huge fan of rhino and played montezuma used to make videos playing the game all the time, and when Raging Rhino was re released it was so bad and gimped that he doesnt touch either games now. Because he knows there not the same games anymore. And i dont blame him!


Dead Or Alive 1 also falls in this category for me. Basically any game that was re released as a html version of its former self. These games are not the same and no wear near as good as they once was. Its too long winded to explain why, but if you know you know.

Anyone who played slots in the 2000's will have experinced how lose the games were back then. As apposed to now. Just feels like every game you play is running at 94% even if it says its 96% rtp.

What i dont miss was the slow withdrawal times etc. All that shits gone now, Most casinos i withdraw from the money is in my account instantly or within the hour. Thats standard practice these days!

 

[dunover]

I agree with what's mostly already been said, Around the time when slotting got big on Twitch TV was the start of the downfall of the industry for me.

I truly will go to my grave believing the game Raging Rhino, Montezuma and many others have been nuked to the ground. Along with a whole other bunch of games that were secretly changed. Yet still claiming to run at the same RTP.

This is fact. I will debate it with anyone, If you played a slot machine every day near enough, Then they re released that same game, you would notice if its the same or not. And those 2 games were my fav games ever. Played them everyday. Streamed them etc. Raging rhino is now a dead spin simulator all rhinos deleted from the reels. Montezuma also shares the same bullshit maths model now.



How they can get away with re releasing the game yet its nothing like the game you once played is beyond me. Also notice how Dazza G was a huge fan of rhino and played montezuma used to make videos playing the game all the time, and when Raging Rhino was re released it was so bad and gimped that he doesnt touch either games now. Because he knows there not the same games anymore. And i dont blame him!


Dead Or Alive 1 also falls in this category for me. Basically any game that was re released as a html version of its former self. These games are not the same and no wear near as good as they once was. Its too long winded to explain why, but if you know you know.

Anyone who played slots in the 2000's will have experinced how lose the games were back then. As apposed to now. Just feels like every game you play is running at 94% even if it says its 96% rtp.

What i dont miss was the slow withdrawal times etc. All that shits gone now, Most casinos i withdraw from the money is in my account instantly or within the hour. Thats standard practice these days!

Yep, The Rapist, Beaky, Ruby Slippers and Bruce Lee all ruined. Twit Spin nerfed after the conversion to html5 as was TSII and IR. The loss of the Viper Client which ironically is now not a memory issue on PCs in the last 10 years with their huge capacities, as it once was. IGT's classic Cleopatra similarly ruined and we lost some great games like D&D FoF and Enchanted Unicorn etc.

No more convertible bonuses and few freebies, shite RTP and loss of autoplay.

Studid Billy big-bollocks bragging bonus buy-based games can fuck-off too.

Aside from a few good ones, I wouldn't piss on most online outfits now. And the United Kindom Grumbling Cartel can sod-off too.

 

[L&L-Jan]

Im cut differently:

as long as they pay and have a spin button, im game.

cashback would be a perk which after a few sessions I often get sorted.

 

[Downsman]

I've only been slotting since 2018 or thereabouts, so don't have any experience of the
golden days you folks have. But it's certainly been a downward spiral, the removal of auto-spins
is a total pain, and new releases are in the main terrible. Never had any SOW nonsense fortunately.

On those rare occasions when I do manage a withdrawal it's pretty much instant now, so that's a plus.

I'll carry on with my meagre once a month session on the old faves until things get totally fecked up.

 

[PeenyBunslinger]

There isn't a single UK casino with the games I want on max RTP where ante bet is enabled.

And that other casino I'm presumably not even allowed to say the name of has increased its minimum bet to 60p up from 20p.

I haven't had fun gambling for a long, long time and I doubt it'll ever be fun again. I think that's that.

 

[YouTubeSlots]

Might i just add also, How did i forget about Bruce Lee!!!

That was the first ever slot game i truly got hooked on back in the GLORIOUS!!! Jackpot Party days.
Up in my top 3 all time games.

Used to sit on my laptop and just rack up like 30 bonuses on the game in a few hours play winning loads, something i would say is impossible to do now on the fake version we have now, And yes im calling it FAKE because it is an imposter.

Go try find that imposter of a game these days on any U.K casino, And tell me its the same game! you just cant.

And its also now being deleted from most casinos same as Amazon Queen, i only have 1 or 2 casinos left that its live at still,

Fun fact!

speaking of deleted games from the U.K market.

I found Montezuma Megaways, and Kronos available for Real Play on one of my U.K Casino accounts the other day out of pure luck in the search bar.

Anyway played them both, got a nice little win on Kronos, Posted my win a few weeks back in the winners screenshot section on here, The next day both games were deleted from the search bar for me.

You couldn't make it up, Im not saying which Casino it was. But they were breaking UKGC rules by having them games still live.

So anyone who was wondering why i was playing Kronos online in 2026 in the U.K that was why.

 

[teckiwi]

Some of its still fun but the intense focus on high volatility titles that pay 10000-50000x+ gets to me, I want more 1000-5000x max win titles etc. Most of my online casinos are switching to 94%RTP which is approaching the 92%RTP for the high RTP physical slots at brick and mortar locations here.

Incoming regulations similar to the UK(No autospins etc, mandatory timeout popups etc) make it less inviting to play at all.

 

[andysbetting1187]

Biggest thing for me was the removal of autospins - i know it seams a small thing, but I used to look forward to doing a big bonus hunt, having a random list of slots and doing 100 spins on each one, then playing through any bonuses I had. Would stop if a slot hit a bonus or the 100 spins had finished, with a film on in the background and a decent bourbon on the go

Since autospins got removed, I just could not be arsed doing it anymore, sitting there clicking away (which gets harder and harder the more you drink)

Personally I don't think removing autospins benefits the player (think this was a mistake on behalf of ukgc) but just my view

 

[Webzcas]

Personally I don't think removing autospins benefits the player (think this was a mistake on behalf of ukgc) but just my view

Yes completely agree with this. Part of the fun was setting it on 100 spins to stop at a feature. Indeed when playing higher variance slots especially this was a tactic I employed.

The removal of autoplay removed the enjoyment rather than help someone with a gambling problem, who is going to continue playing, autoplay or not.

 

[lucks_maximus]

Sports betting hasn't changed for the worse for me, objectively speaking. Betting limits are way up since I started. Lines might be slightly more efficient than when I started, but no biggie. I guess bonuses are worse now? But they never mattered to me: I've played only raw, and at the sharpest outfit from the very beginning. For what and how I bet, things are arguably better.
Despite that, gambling is less exciting now because my brain is even more fried (and they were already crispy).

I haven't played slots long enough to give input there, except that I've been playing for not even a year and I'm already starting to feel quite bored of it... however, I'm currently messing around with code for a potential slot game (gonna try to make one). It seems doable even with my unimpressive dev skills.
More interested in making a slot than playing a slot now.

 

[sufferinsilence]

Sports betting provides me more fun than playing slots these days. But with a lot of bookies also gamifying (is that a word?) betting with tournaments, jackpots, "social feeds" and whatnot some books start to look like casinos combined with social media...

It seems even that slots that are advertised as low volatility are turned up a notch which makes for less play time even if you opt to play low stakes on those. Luckily there's still a decent selection of older slots available, which might have been changed but that's not a proven point, so you can at least give them a spin now and then.

New games? Yeah, I'll try them but most bore me after 20 spins. It's either 6 coins/orbs, 3 pots or huge ante-bets to actually have a chance to get a bonus. There's of course the occasional (hidden) gem but they're few and far between.

 

[SYPlayer95]

Slightly off topic, but if the UKGC removed auto play from online. Why did the not remove it from bricks and mortar slots? What's the difference?

 

[andysbetting1187]

Slightly off topic, but if the UKGC removed auto play from online. Why did the not remove it from bricks and mortar slots? What's the difference?

I would guess it was due to fobts already being restricted to £2 a spin in 2019ish, but online still having a much higher per spin limit (i think it was uncapped until 2024/25)

I always thought that it would be reviewed at some point, as well as the red bags/power play options

 

[Reelsoffun]

I completely agree with 99% of the replies.
With lower RTPs, relentless release of high and super high variance games which the general average slot player did not want or ask for, it’s really becoming a struggle to enjoy what was for many years a really fun and engaging pastime.

Now it’s an extremely hungry pastime not only for your wallet but physical time esp if your in the uk due to many of the shortcuts being banned, hell were not even allowed to autoplay 50 spins to keep track.

Plus don’t get me started on the never ending release of, 3 pots, 6 balls games and collector games, that try and pass themselves off as low/ mid variance as even those can take 300x off you in as little as 10 mins.

I have said it before the UKGC really need someone that can relate to both the players and casinos to create much better balance between genuine harmful things like reversals being banned, credit cards being banned ( good use of regulation ) and things that don’t realistically help players at all like auto play ( bad use of regulation )

How about making graphical 3 pot games, collector and persistence type games illegal, I’m 99.9% certain those have caused more harm than auto play ever has.

So in answer to the thread titles question? Has it become less fun - Absolutely!

 

[lockinlove]

I feel like most people are one bad run away from quitting. The low RTP stuff just kills the fun and vibe. Online casinos have nowhere near the overhead landbased casinos do..yet they are putting their rtp as low as landbased. Which is around 92%.

The fun of gambling is feeling like you can get that big hit..but lower rtp makes it less often...so less likely..while destroying your wallet.

Add on scam casinos, verification bs tactics, bad promos....it just feels like its a dying industry. It will always make money. There are lots of addicts but for the general person to load up and have fun..I know a tonne of people who dont even bother anymore because of all the bs.

If you can be a good casino, with good rtp and decent promos and get the word out...it would be pretty easy to rise to the top these days.

Remember videoslots and how popular and massive they were? They were the number one casino by far. But they lowered rtp, lowered rewards and alot of people left. I havent played there in 5 years and I use to play there numerous times a week. And I know A TONNE of people who left videoslots over that.

Like everything. People/casinos sniff a buck and the greed takes over. They look at short term wealth over long term.

Seen alot of casinos close recently. They ruin their brand with greed.

 

[Lemon]

Slotting without autoplay is proper shite. It was bad enough the first time they fucked about with it and you had to choose up to 100 spins, set the maximum loss and so on - but it was just about acceptable.

And then it got totally binned. As a result, some slots are just completely unplayable because you need to be fully engaged. Fuck that.

What's the average spin time on something like Bonanza when you factor in the cascades? 5 seconds? Let's be generous and say 4. Bonus hit-rate is 1/480 or something, so that's an average of 32 minutes at an absolute minimum spent to get a bonus on Bonanza if you're pressing spin for the next game as soon as the start button becomes available, 100% unwavering focus on just that. Think of all the things you could be doing in that time if you could use autoplay.

You could do the washing-up, bit of hoovering, make the bed and take the bins out, and then after all that you've got a nice bonus to look forward to. It was your reward for getting all those household chores done.

My flat used to be spotless before autoplay got banned. Now it's a fucking tip. Thanks UKGC