The UK’s Gambling Commission has imposed its first financial penalty for advertising failings on BGO Entertainment, fining it £300,000 for misleading advertising on its own and its affiliates’ websites.
The commission is warning gambling operators to ensure advertising is not falling foul of social responsibility rules or deceiving consumers.
Since May 2015, licence conditions and codes of practice require all licensed gambling operators to include in their advertisements any significant limitations relating to promotions, in order to avoid misleading consumers. The commission has worked closely with the Advertising Standards Authority to raise standards in this area.
Programme director Paul Hope said: “We want to make sure that gambling is conducted fairly and openly. So we have made it clear to the industry that misleading advertising is a serious issue. We have powers to tackle it, including the power to impose financial penalties such as this.”
The commission first raised concerns with BGO about its advertising in July 2015. The investigation established that BGO and its affiliates published misleading advertisements for promotions, did not take timely and effective action to address the misleading advertisements and provided inaccurate assurances that the issues had been fully addressed.
Hope added: “We want operators to take note that the issues identified in the decision notice are likely to form the basis for future compliance assessments and could lead to enforcement action.”
