ONLINE gambling companies are to be investigated over claims that firms are making it hard for players to collect their winnings, a watchdog has said.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) will probe complaints from the Gambling Commission of unfair treatment of customers, including hard-to-win promotions and blocks on payouts.
Around 5.5 million Britons regularly use online gambling websites, up 146 per cent since 2009, the CMA said.
Nisha Arora, the CMA’s senior director for consumer enforcement, said: “Gambling inevitably involves taking a risk, but it shouldn’t be a con.
“We’ve heard worrying complaints suggesting people may be lured into signing up for promotions with little chance of winning because of unfair and complex conditions.”
The complaints could amount to breaches of consumer law and companies have been issued with notices requiring them to give evidence.
Gambling Commission chief executive Sarah Harrison said there were concerns that online terms and conditions appeared to “bamboozle” customers.
She said: “Gambling, by its very nature, is always going to involve risk but customers must have faith that, if they win, they will not end up feeling that the deck is stacked against them because of an obscure condition that they did not properly understand.”
Brian Chappell, 59, who set up campaign group Justice4Punters, welcomed the move.
He said: “It is absolutely essential because if you go and read the terms and conditions that any big corporate bookmakers use, they’re an absolute scandal.”
“The whole thing has got out of control because they redefined what gambling means.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel