Denmark moves to tighten bonus legislation
New guidelines designed to ensure operators properly communicate terms and conditions of bonus promotions
The Danish Gambling Authority (DGA) has moved to enforce stricter controls on player bonuses following a number of cases involving non-compliant promotions in the market.
The regulator has published a series of guidelines, drawn up after consultations with the Danish Online Gambling Association (DOGA), legal firm Horten and Andresen Partners, and industry representatives from Unibet and Betsson. The guidelines are designed to set out “how the Gambling Authority will interpret the bonus provisions” and by extension “which practices the Gambling Authority will regard as being lawful”.
However, it does not identity any of the operators ruled to have advertised promotions in a way which contravenes legislation.
It states that all promotions must be “correct, accurately worded and relevant” and avoid “potential misunderstandings, ambiguities or misinterpretations”. Any promotions or restrictions placed on an offer have to be presented “in such a way that they have approximately the same degree of communicative impact as the offer itself”.
The DGA is looking to force operators to highlight restrictions including those only available to new customers, the need to deposit to receive the promotional offer, play-through requirements and time limits on bonuses. However, it adds that it will ultimately be the responsibility of the operator to “to assess whether the bonus offer in question contains significant restrictions”.
It will also be the responsibility of the operator to assess how to use restricted space, such as in a newspaper advert, to strike a balance between describing the offer itself as well as the terms and conditions.
As a result “a company which selects a space-restricted medium is accordingly obliged to limit the extent of its description of the offer in order to leave room for a description of the restrictions attached to it”, the guidelines explain.
Operators can also submit their adverts to Denmark’s Consumer Ombudsman “ similar to the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority “ to ensure the promotions are compliant with legislation.
Denmark has made a number of moves to tighten up its regulations, with a ‘whistleblower’ service to allow companies and members of the public to report illegal operators in the market launched in February last year. This was followed by the creation of a blacklist, with internet service providers mandated to block access to a number of sites including Bet-at-Home and Winner.com.
The Danish market continues to perform well, with flat poker revenues in the first quarter of 2013 offset by strong growth in casino and sports betting. Both verticals posted 30% year-on-year increases in revenues, with casino growing to DKK240m and sports up to DKK370m.