Net spend and time

Net spend, not deposits and not turnover

The term “net spend” does exactly what it says: it nets things off. It is not the sum a player has deposited. It is not the total amount staked, which on an account where winnings are re-wagered can run to many multiples of the original deposit. The standard requires that the figure shown is a net calculation, leaving only the money that has left the player’s pocket and not returned. The net spend figure accounts for deposits, withdrawals and winnings. The point is to cut through the psychological clutter of “turnover” and “bonus credit” and give the account holder one hard number that answers the only question that matters for harm measurement: how much am I down.

This requirement, set out in the Remote Gambling and Software Technical Standards (RTS) as RTS 2E and RTS 13C, was included in the package of changes that came into force on 31 October 2021. The same wording was restated without alteration in the consolidated update that took effect on 17 January 2025. The fact the Commission thought it worth restating suggests it remains a priority for supervision.

Net time, and what it counts

Accompanying net spend is net time, a tally of the hours and minutes a player has spent using the gambling product. Again, “net” is the operative word. A simple clock that starts when a player logs in and stops when they close the browser would count meal breaks, walking the dog, or an afternoon spent with the app open in the background. A net time figure strips those out. The calculation method is defined in the technical standard, but the principle is that idle time, timeouts, and periods where no gambling activity is taking place are not counted. What the player sees is an approximation of active play duration, not connection time.

This is the figure that often surprises people when they first notice it. A session might show more time on a simple timer; a net clock that deducts the twenty minutes the game sat idle over dinner is far more informative. It also forces a category of truth that the industry had not previously measured: time is a cost in itself, and the account now has to show it.

Required since 2021, restated in 2025

The obligation to display both numbers has been in place since 2021. When the Commission first introduced the requirement in the October 2021 RTS update, it was part of a broader tightening of player-facing information. The same update mandated that customers could set financial limits and that those limits be displayed clearly. But net spend and net time were given their own dedicated clauses—2E and 13C—and they apply not just to casino products but to all remote betting and gaming covered by the licence conditions, including ancillary remote betting.

Licence condition 2.3.1 makes the RTS binding on all holders of a remote operating licence or a gambling software licence. There is no opt-out and no phase-in for legacy accounts. If a firm holds a British licence and provides remote gambling to consumers in Great Britain, the two numbers must be displayed. The Commission has not prescribed which screen they must appear on, nor whether they must be visible without the player clicking on a submenu, but they must be present and accurate.

Account history, the older half of the rule

The 2021 rules did not appear out of nowhere. They built on an earlier wave of transparency requirements that came into force on 1 April 2018. Those 2018 standards already required that licensees display a full gambling account history, including net deposits and financial limits. The 2021 update layered net spend and net time on top, making the picture more granular. The 2018 package also included the rule, still in force, that “Customers must be able to choose whether to accept price fluctuations that occur after their bet is requested.” That language, quoted directly from the RTS, shows the same philosophy at work: the player must be given enough information to understand what they have committed to. Net spend and net time extended that logic to the whole lifecycle of the account, not just to individual bets.

The Commission’s published record of RTS changes lists the 1 April 2018 update under the heading “display of transactions – gambling account history – display of net deposits and financial limits.” By 2021, the same “display of transactions” family had grown to include net spend and net time under two new provisions, with the label “display of transactions - net spend and net time information” added to the log of changes.

Why the vocabulary around these numbers changed

A further shift is already on the statute book. An updated RTS, effective from 30 September 2026, revises the accompanying guidance and changes several key terms. The phrase “stake limits” will replace “spend limits” for customer-set financial controls. Loss limits are redefined, and a new term, “net deposit limit”, is introduced. The changes do not alter the underlying duties to show net spend and net time, which remain untouched, but they alter the words the industry uses around risk management. For a player accustomed to seeing “spend limit” on their account page, the switch to “stake limit” may cause momentary confusion, but the new language reflects a more precise description of the amount placed at risk per bet, not the overall loss or deposit figure.

That a regulator is still updating definitions years after the first requirements is a sign that the project of making account-level data meaningful is not yet finished. The two numbers that must be shown today will, in all likelihood, be joined by further mandated figures as the Commission’s evidence base on harm grows. For now, though, the obligation is simple: every British gambling account must tell its holder, in clear and unignorable terms, exactly how much they have lost and how long they have spent losing it.