Broadway Gaming Fined with £100K by the UKGC

The UK Gambling Commission announced at the beginning of the year that it will impose heavier fines on gambling operators that break the rules and one of the key goals in the new 3-year strategy is to make gambling fairer and safer for everybody. One way to make gambling fairer is to fine operators that mislead their customers, and bonus terms and conditions have been identified as one of the areas that are most problematic.

This time Broadway Gaming failed to offer clear bonus terms and conditions, and as a result the company was fined. This is not the first complaint against Broadway Gaming, previously the Advertising Standards Authority also reacted publicly regarding on of the adverts that was presented on one of the websites operated by Broadway Gaming.

Operator Didn’t Provide Clear Terms and Conditions

The UK Gambling Commission in this case ruled that the operator didn’t correctly present the conditions of their promo offers and as a result fined the company with £100,000. The Commission found misleading material on five websites that are run by Broadway Gaming. Butler Bingo, Casino of Dreams, Dotty Bingo, Bingo Diamond and Rehab Bingo were the websites in question and the first one, Butler Bingo was also mentioned by the ASA in June 2016, after the Authority decided that a complaint against the bingo site was grounded. Namely, in that case the ASA concluded that Butlers Bingo bonus offer didn’t specify the bonus conditions correctly.

The UK Gambling Commission conducted an investigation and Broadway Gaming admitted that all promotional material, including the problematic terms and conditions were specified by them, thus clearing their affiliates of all responsibility and blame. The company assured the Commission that it will control more carefully both the material that stems directly from them, as well as the ones that are generated by the affiliates.

Other Operators Have also Been Fined

Not only did the Gambling Commission fine Broadway Gaming, but it also concluded that this decision should be a lesson for all operators that are licenced to operate in the UK, both land-based as well as online operators. It appears that the Commission intends on conducting more similar investigations and fine all operators which fail to comply by industry standards.

Broadway Gaming accepted both the fine and the findings on the investigation and issued a public statement in which it acknowledged that the company can only blame itself for what happened, pledging to improve in the future and not to allow anything like this to happen again.

The UK Gambling Commission fined several operators in the last period, including industry giants such as 888 Holdings, BGO, Ladbrokes Coral Group and other companies. Some of the fines were expressed in seven-figure amounts. The Competitions and Market Authority also threated operators that it will introduce restrictions if they fail to provide clear and concise bonus terms and conditions.

The Commission suggests that all operators should include all limitations that customers should be aware of in the terms and conditions and that operators shouldn’t assume that customers know something. Recently, the Commission requested that operators stop broadcasting ads that seem to appear to children.