Winamax in hot water after homophobic tweet
Poker operator faces calls for licence suspension as French regulator beefs up marketing oversight powers
Leading French poker operator Winamax has faced intense pressure from politicians and been reminded of its marketing responsibilities by France’s regulator after posting a controversial tweet deemed to be homophobic.
Winamax posted a tweet, which has since been deleted, referencing lyrics from rap group PNL after domestic sides PSG and Lyon qualified for the Champions League semi-finals.
The minister for sport, Roxana Maracineanu, took to Twitter to lambast the operator for its post and implored the social networking site to take action.
Sérieusement @WinamaxSport vous vous croyez où? Votre tweet est à vomir.
@TwitterFrance Ça ne vous dérange pas de laisser passer ce genre de messages?— Roxana Maracineanu (@RoxaMaracineanu) August 16, 2020
Minister Delegate Élisabeth Moreno said the tweet was “filthy and hurtful” and that “hateful and homophobic comments must be banned from social networks”.
Je condamne fermement cette communication crasse et blessante. Les propos haineux et homophobes doivent être bannis des réseaux sociaux ! @WinamaxSport et @TwitterFrance, soyez responsables ! https://t.co/jDiaXmxUeG
— Élisabeth Moreno (@1ElisaMoreno) August 16, 2020
The French regulator, L’Autorité nationale des jeux (ANJ), eventually became embroiled in the controversy when MP Olga Givernet wrote to the body demanding the suspension of Winamax’s licence.
While the ANJ did not follow through with Givernet’s request – instead stating that Winamax’s actions were “not likely, as it stands, to be considered as a failure by this operator to fulfil its obligations” – it did detail a roadmap to ensure the operator remained in line with the regulation.
The ANJ will now have oversight and final approval on Winamax’s online promotional strategy, which must be presented before 30 October each year.
The regulator also highlighted how Winamax must adhere to risk-prevention strategies concerning youth gambling and the use of a popular rap group to advertise gambling “may entail a risk of incitement to gambling” to young people.
Winamax has deleted the offending tweet at the behest of the ANJ but had a final say on the matter by replying to Givernet’s public letter.
“We immediately delete our ‘shocking’, ‘abject’ and ‘unbearable’ tweet,” said the operator.
Nous supprimons immédiatement notre tweet "choquant", "abject" et insupportable. https://t.co/WjFVns1sjm
— Winamax Sport 🔞 (@WinamaxSport) August 18, 2020