The UK Gambling Commissions (UKGC) has put forward new plans which will enable the regulator to impose legal action for breaches of advertising and consumer laws from the 31st October this year.At present, only the operators can be issued with fines for promoting misleading adverts. The new ruling will allow the regulator to make accountable the companies even if third party affiliates are used for the misleading promotions which make gambling look glamorous, or even appealing to children.
Moving forward
They are also going to make a better complaints procedure for customers, giving a period of 8 weeks for the complaints and a resolution to be agreed by the operators, as well as action being taken against gambling operators who send spam marketing to their customers via texts and emails.Commission Chief Executive, Neill McArthur said: “Protecting the interests of consumers is a priority for us and needs to be a priority for gambling operators.“These changes will protect consumers from irresponsible advertising and misleading advertising and misleading promotions, ensure consumers can withdraw their money more easily, and will mean consumer complaints are dealt with more swiftly.”“For the time being our focus is around this piece of work is allowing us to be tough and really crack down on operators who are not complying with the Advertising Standards Authority rules around advertising.”Numerous complaints were received by the UKGC about the amount of gambling adverts which were being broadcast during the 2018 World Cup.