Whether you’re gambling online or playing at a brick and mortar casino, you will almost certainly notice that this is a heavily regulated industry. In the past, gambling was totally illegal in the UK.
These days, however, you can provide gambling as a service as long as you follow the strict rules and regulations which are in place. If operators fail to follow these rules, they might be fined or might even be shut down.
Generally speaking, if you are a player, the rules and regulations are good for you. Most of these policies are there to protect you and prevent you from being ripped off by casinos.
What are casino bonuses?
If you’ve spent a decent amount of time playing on casino sites, you’ve almost certainly encountered some kind of bonus offer. These grant players things like free spins on slots games and free credits to spend on popular titles.
These casino sites often describe themselves as requiring “no deposit”. Usually, this is true in the sense that you don’t need to deposit any of your own money to be granted the bonus. Of course, this doesn’t mean you simply get money for free. Unfortunately, these offers are usually subject to what are known as wagering requirements.
What are wagering requirements?
According to https://www.casinoguide.co.uk/casino-bonus, a wagering requirement is the amount of your own cash you need to deposit before you are able to withdraw any money you have won as a result of a bonus. This is where the casinos make their money on the bonus offers, as the amount you will need to deposit is often quite high.
Regulatory change
In 2017, the UK Gambling Commission did an investigation into these bonus promotions. Many players complained that these promos were unfair. They thought they had met the wagering requirements, but it turned out they hadn’t, based on a technicality.
In partnership with the Advertising Standards Agency, the UK Gambling Commission determined that many online casinos were breaking consumer protection laws with their bonus offers.
The issues
The UK Gambling Commission argued that there were many issues with how these promotions were being run. Many players found themselves running afoul of a technicality and a result, they were unable to withdraw any of their winnings.
Many of these technicalities were only described in terms and conditions, which were difficult to find and read. For example, some promotions required that you only make up the wagering requirements on certain games, but this wasn’t always clearly explained.
When it came to the terms and conditions, they were often deliberately moved off to some obscure corner of the site. The user interface of many casinos also made it a challenge to differentiate between bonus balance and actual deposit balance.
In addition, there were complaints that players were used in promotional material without their explicit consent. Some reported they were forced to take part in promotional material if they wanted to withdraw their bonus amount.
What was done
The UK Gambling Commission threatened and imposed big fines for any casino sites that continued to violate the law. This led to some online casinos withdrawing their bonus offers altogether.
On the other hand, other sites made an effort to update their terms and conditions. Terms now needed to be easily visible and easy to understand. Operators are no longer able to rely on vaguely-worded bonus offers to pocket players’ money.
Why does this matter?
It’s now so much easier to determine exactly what you need to do to make a withdrawal from your bonus funds. This makes it a lot more straightforward to determine whether or not a casino bonus is worth your time or not.
Also, these new regulations mean that a casino can’t use your likeness in their own promotional materials unless you give them explicit permission to do so.
Unless you are well off enough to own a casino company, these changes can only be a positive thing. While some sites have stopped offering promotions altogether, those that still offer them have much fairer terms.
