William Hill, Ladbrokes and Titanbet have agreed to act on the findings of the Competitions and Market Authority, who have been investigating online gambling terms and conditions.
The three bookmakers will be wide-ranging changes to their bonus promotions to adhere to a ruling which has found the named gambling operators have been breaking the UK consumer protection law with regard to bonus marketing and policies of the withdrawal of account funds. If agreed changes aren’t made within a time scale, regulatory action from the Gambling Commission could follow and even enforcement by the courts. No other bookmakers have been named in the report but it’s a shot across the bows to clarify what has always been a grey area.
That is good news for punters as I suspect they’ll soon be able to withdraw winnings achieved on bonus promotions rather than have to play with those said winnings in certain cases.
The CMA has acted because it believed people were not getting the deal they expected from several sign-up promotions and operators are unfairly holding on to people’s money.
The binding decision comes following a joint programme of work between the Gambling Commission and the CMA to confront a shared concern about whether new customers were being treated fairly by some online gambling operators. Sign-up promotions are, of course, designed to attract players onto punting platforms and casino-like gaming websites by offering bonus cash when they put in their own money.
There is nothing wrong with that and some punters have become adept at ‘playing the game’. Bookmaker ‘tarts’, who use bonus cash in new accounts before moving elsewhere, have become less common but the practice is not restricted to the betting industry. The banking and utility sector also offer bonuses to entice ‘switchers’. However, the CMA became concerned that people often don’t get the deal they are expecting with betting promotions as many come with an array of terms and conditions that are often confusing and unclear and, in some cases, have been ruled unfair.
Customers might have to play a number of times before they are allowed to withdraw any money so they don’t have the choice to quit while they’re ahead – that is all going to change. Even when players haven’t signed up for a promotion, there have been accusations that some operators are stopping customers taking money out of their accounts. The CMA has apparently been told by customers that some firms even have minimum withdrawal amounts far bigger than the original deposit, or try to place hurdles in the way of them withdrawing their money.
Prospective new customers of Ladbrokes, William Hill and Titanbet can be assured that they’ll have little room for complaint when bonus changes are implemented, however, and other bookmakers would be foolish if they didn’t also ensure that their policies and terms didn’t fall strictly in line.
