The Hits Just Keep Coming for the UK Gambling Industry

Author: Skyla Burrell

There has been a new regulation tsunami for the online gambling industry in the United Kingdom for the last two years and the hits just keep on coming. Not the catchy hits played on the radio, more like the hits from a baseball bat swung at full force. The new UK gambling regulations are strict, unforgiving, and intended to be that way. But, let’s also keep in mind the recent changes have been extremely profitable for the UKGC, to the tune of £18 million in just 2 years. In this article we are going to examine a few of the key regulations and repercussions, so grab some Pepto-Bismol and let’s do this.

The Gambling Food Chain First, you may not understand how casinos attract players; let’s quickly lay out the food chain. Casinos 99% of the time rely on affiliate programs to generate new players, affiliate programs rely on referrals from casino portals, like Gambling City, and other casino review sites across the web. Think of the gambling promotion industry like an Octopus, arm in arm, and arm in arm, and arm in arm, and arm in arm. The recent changes to the UKGC advertising guidelines directly affect everyone on the food chain, from top to bottom. Ever-changing guidelines are making even the most efficient sites struggle to keep up.

Promotional Marketing - Minors No marketing material is allowed that could possibly appeal to any minors. That one threw every banner designer into a tailspin as 99.9% of casino ads feature slots, slots usually have cartoon characters, cartoons appeal to kids, and you see the scale of the changes required. Still the industry rolled on complying as the UKGC demanded, hoping that was the worst of it. In addition to overhauling the way casinos advertise their games, partners were also required to add a link to BeGambleAware and the pertinent bonus terms everywhere an ad is displayed on their site. This required change left programmers scrambling to reprogram their sites to accommodate this unprecedented request.

Direct Marketing No emails or text messages are allowed to be sent from any gambling advertiser to anyone residing in the UK. Even if you signed up for the Gambling City newsletter, we can’t email you.

What Next? The industry is bracing itself once again for yet another round of changes that will go into effect on October 31, 2018, giving operators just 3 months to address any issues under penalty of outrageous fines.