Affiliates Exploiting Players With Gambling Addictions (Non Gamstop Casinos)

[melcb]

GamStop is an initiative which is a self-exclusion option for all UK players. A player can register their details with the service and when those same details are used to register at a UKGC licensed online casino either the registration will be prevented or the account restricted straight away.

What some affiliates are doing is targeting 'non gamstop' keywords to lure players to non licensed brands. These brands are not connected to the Gamstop initiative and therefore players are not protected.

The Pogg has created BetBlocker which is a free app that once installed blocks the device from visiting over 6.1k gambling sites, it is also able to block non-gamstop casinos. Read more about it here.

 

[AidanLCFC]

I wrote all about it last week here https://online-bookies.org.uk/blog/...now-about-the-gambling-self-exclusion-scheme/

 

[danniee]

Affiliates like that are twats that give us all a bad name, just the same as fake money streamers and rogue casinos. So many shitty people in this industry unfortunately.

 

[baldidiot]

That's pretty jacked up...

 

[bonustreak]

Really sick!

 

[ThePOGG]

I've got to agree with the reactions in this thread. It takes a really amoral person to target gambling addicts in this way. Even after everything else I've seen in this industry I was genuinely shocked to see this. Some people seem to have infinite greed and zero capacity for basic human empathy.

@AidanLCFC - thanks very much for putting yourself out there to help try to hamper this. I've put a link to your article from ThePOGG's article to try and help you to rank.

And a big thanks to melcb for bringing this topic to light on the AGD forums!

TP

 

[CL-Ed]

Disgraceful. Every time I think I've seen the lowest of the low in this industry (which rarely ceases to disappoint) along comes someone else to lower the bar.

 

[bettingappguide]

I didn't even know this was a thing until this thread. I was approached on Tuesday to do some link building against sites promoting this and told them where to go. No need to do this

 

[MissExposé]

We received this email:

Dear Affiliates,

We’d like to take a moment to draw your attention to our stance on Responsible Gambling and one of the programmes we’re involved in that helps to ensure the integrity of our brand.

GamStop is a UKGC (United Kingdom Gambling Commission) led initiative created to empower players and facilitate Responsible Gambling in the UK. To this end, the national self-exclusion registry has been established wherein players may register to automatically be prevented from using the gambling websites and apps run by participating companies licensed in Great Britain for a chosen period.

10bet takes its participation in such initiatives very seriously, and we believe it is a crucial element of our brand.

Unfortunately, it has come to our attention recently that some of our affiliates have been targeting self-excluded players who have registered at GamStop as part of their traffic.

Such conduct, in addition to being a violation of 10bet policy, is a direct violation of our Terms and Conditions. As a consequence, the offending affiliate accounts were immediately closed and cooperation with them has been discontinued.

In light of these circumstances, we felt this was an opportune moment to invite you to review our T&Cs, just to make sure you’re fully aware of our expectations and all permissible conduct with respect to our brand.

Should you have any further questions, we’re here to help.

10bet Affiliate Team

 

[betizen]

The BetBlocker tool looks promising. Would like to help translating it to spanish and portuguese in order to recommend it to our users. Does anybody know if this is in the dev roadmap? Else I will get in touch.

 

[ThePOGG]

The BetBlocker tool looks promising. Would like to help translating it to spanish and portuguese in order to recommend it to our users. Does anybody know if this is in the dev roadmap? Else I will get in touch.

Hi Betizen,

The translation of the tool is not in itself problematic and we would like to expand the service to other languages ultimately (including Spanish and Portuguese). However, BetBlocker requires a certain amount of user support to function correctly, especially on the mobile platforms. The app looks to restrict a device from doing something - when it goes wrong this often ends up restricting an unintended functionality. We need to be able to offer support to users when these types of issues arise.

Where we offer the app in a language - providing the terms of use, privacy policy etc in that language - we're obliged to ensure that we can offer user support in that language. Where a Spanish speaking user accepts the English language terms and subsequently contacts support in Spanish, I'll do my best via Google Translate, but ultimately we haven't given indication that support can be provided in Spanish. Where we provide the contracts in Spanish, we imply that the service has Spanish language capacity.

We're in the process of setting BetBlocker up at a UK registered charity. Once we achieve that we would look to encourage some donations from the industry and hire in multi-lingual support. The languages targeted will likely be decided by both international volume of speakers and availability of fluent bi-lingual support agent candidates.

Thanks,

Duncan Garvie

Manager
BetBlocker.org

 

[betizen]

Hi Duncan, thanks a lot for those details. I see now that in addition to the product itself you have an operation going, that will need support from the community in order to grow to other languages and volumen.
I will be happy to see that happening and the expansion, specially into Spanish and Portuguese.
Since our project being developed is not based in infinite grow, but with specific revenue goals in mind, we will be more than happy and is part of our plan, once those goals are met, to support other projects that contribute to make the industry a better, more ethical place for players, operators and intermediaries. Projects like BetBlocker contribute to this, so I look forward to see your it growing!

Thanks again for your message!