The Gambling Commission is supporting a Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) investigation into whether gambling operators are treating customers fairly, which has been launched this morning.
Working with information supplied by the Commission and others the CMA has contacted a range of gambling operators to demand information about their use of potentially unfair terms and misleading practices. This comes in response to concerns that consumers have raised about the industry on issues such as cancelling bets, altering odds after bets have been accepted, and offering misleading sign-up promotions.
Gambling Commission Sarah Harrison explained: “We expect the gambling industry to ensure terms and conditions are not unfair. However, operators are still not doing enough. I continue to have concerns that many of these appear to bamboozle rather than help the customer make informed choices.
“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. We approached the CMA to work with them to address issues in the gambling sector and we are delighted to have agreed a joint programme of work to ensure terms are fair and transparent.”
The joint work with the CMA builds upon the Commission’s call earlier this year to place consumer interest at the heart of the gambling industry, reflected in the recent launch of the Commission’s plan for communicating with consumers.
The gambling industry’s sign up terms and conditions for its bonuses have legitimate reasons for their existence as operators try to protect themselves from bonus hunters and those that open fraudulent accounts in order to exploit new customer offers. The notorious palpable error clause is also meant to protect bookmakers from major errors by staff.
However concern over just how labyrinthine some of the Ts&Cs are – industry body IBAS has been lobbying operators to improve them for years – means that a CMA review has been a probability for some time.
Source: SBC News
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