This is true that now online casinos of UK will have to pay fine for not disclosing their bonus terms and conditions to players. Lately the UK Gambling Commission started to crack down on bonus offers. According to the new regulations on casino bonus terms, operators who didn’t properly show their terms and conditions or didn’t run their bonus offers completely by the book now risk severe fines for any indiscretions.
UK online casinos now cautious over bonuses and promotions
Because of the latest regulations UK online casinos are now cautious to offer bonuses to punters. Infact few online casinos and online betting companies have stopped offering bonuses when you sign up. Until now casino bonus offers used to be
Casino bonus offers are listed on the promotional page of the online casino as well as on the casino homepage. Recently the casinos have started less of advertising their bonuses. As you know that online casinos generally offered a variety of bonus offers, although some were more common than others. No deposit bonus, Welcome Bonus and Free Spins are more highlighted than other types of bonuses because these give you varying amounts of extra credit to play slots with.
But these bonus offers almost always have extensive terms and conditions associated with them. Suppose if you received £20’s worth of free play, you may be subject to a wagering requirement like the 30 X wagering requirement that you would need to ‘play through’ £600 in order to access any of your winnings.
The bonus terms and conditions
The terms and conditions surrounding bonus offers have generated some controversy. Casinos have been accused of deliberately drafting confusing or misleading terms and conditions. Some casinos have even been accused of hiding the terms and conditions in places where the players can’t find them. This was the one reason that now online casinos are fined if they don’t disclose their bonus terms. In light of this new crackdown, many casino operators were forced to revisit their bonus offer strategy in the UK market and since bonus offers have become so heavily regulated in the UK, many operators have decided to simply stop running them, thereby avoiding the risk of being penalised.
According to Alex Tester of CasinoGuide UK: “Fear of reprisals from regulators has led to several of the casinos we work with to cease offering bonuses to UK players. Operators are held wholly responsible for all of their offers, even when they are advertised on other websites such as ours, so it’s not surprising to us. By not offering bonuses at all, they avoid the risk of being hit with some very large fines – not to mention potentially irreparable damage to their reputation.”
Click here to read more from Alex and his plans for CasinoGuide in this AffiliateInsider interview.
Which bonuses are affected by this new regulation?
UK players should not worry as the new regulation doesn’t affect all bonuses. Also this doesn’t necessarily mean every casino is going to shut down every bonus offer. In fact, the majority of casinos are co-operating with the new regulations while still offering welcome bonuses. Also removing the promotions that could land them in hot water with the authorities. This doesn’t mean you are going to see more bonus offers that don’t have a wagering requirement. More likely, it will just be spelled out in a clearer way what the terms of your bonus offer are.
The general consensus is that these regulations are a positive change for most players. This decision from the UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) and UK Gambling Commission has significantly simplified a lot of casino bonus offers. In the past, you were much more likely to have to hunt for bonus terms and conditions in order to find them. Now that the terms must be presented clearly, you can make an informed decision more easily.
Future of the bonus offers at online casinos
The future of bonus offers at online casinos is not going to be affected much. Also once regulators bring an aspect of the activity they regulate under their control, this control is not so quickly relinquished. The only change you will thus see that the now the aim of making bonus terms more transparent and accessible to players. Depending on how the regulator chooses to act, there may be some more big changes ahead.
Also the move to limit wagering requirements, would probably result in more operators abandoning their bonus strategy in the UK. Also if such a regulation were to affect the casino operator profits then, they may simply stop offering their services to UK players. It is obvious that the Gambling Commission will want to avoid scaring operators out of their casino market.
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