Gambling Commission Launches Sky Vegas Investigation
The UK regulator has launched an investigation into the Sky Betting & Gaming brand Sky Vegas after the Flutter Entertainment owned company sent promotions to self-excluded customers. The casino brand has apologised for the mistake, which saw hundreds of customers contacted during Safer Gambling Week.
UKGC Will Investigate Sky Vegas Promotional Blunder © Pixabay.
The UK Gambling Commission has promised to “look into” a marketing error by Sky Vegas that meant those that had self-excluded from gambling had received emails offering them a mystery bonus offer.
A mistake made worse with this week being Safer Gambling Week.
Hundreds of angry people have taken to social media platforms, including Twitter and Facebook, to express their annoyance after receiving emails from the Flutter Entertainment owned Sky Vegas brand. The email tells the recipient to “take a peek” at their “mystery bonus”.
Some of the people that the Sky Betting & Gaming online casino contacted had self-excluded from Sky, and others had registered with the GAMSTOP self-exclusion register. As a result, Sky Vegas was breaking the terms of their remote gambling licence in contacting these former customers, which forbids any contact with those that self-exclude and puts into question their status as one of the regulated UK casino sites.
Sky Vegas admitted they are aware of the issue and offered an apology via its Twitter feed. Parent company Flutter Entertainment also acknowledged the error and released a statement. It read:
“We sincerely apologise to those who have mistakenly received Sky Vegas promotional communications and for the distress this may have caused some recipients,”
“We are treating this matter extremely seriously and are thoroughly investigating how this happened as a matter of urgency.” The Flutter Entertainment statement read.
The Gambling Commission also used social media to inform the public that they were aware of the issue and would be conducting an investigation. The Tweet reads:
“We’ve been made aware by members of the public that @SkyBet have sent promotional emails to self-excluded customers yesterday. We do not expect this of our operators, and we will be looking into how this has happened.”
One Twitter user, @GamblingInsight, who describe their account as a ‘Consumer advocate for a fairer, better-regulated gambling sector. Questioning unethical practices – VIP schemes, complaints, safer gambling & data use.’ Said the company had broken Ordinary Code 8.1.1, Social responsibility code provision 1.1.2, Social responsibility code provision 3.5.3 and Data Protection Act 2018 Section 11.
Another Twitter user, Mr Market, asked: “Yes but what will you actually do ? What are the consequences? Are you going to send them a strongly worded email ?”
To which another user @pootswin1 replied, “An eye-watering fine no doubt, a proportion of which will go to charities supposedly addressing gambling harms but who’s results when examined closely don’t come up to scratch…no by a country mile. It’s all performative.”
The Gambling Commission also add that it is a breach of the UKGC’s social responsibility codes if an operator fails to show that it has taken all the steps possible to stop marketing material being sent to users of GAMSTOP or a similar scheme.
It is not the first time Sky Betting and Gaming has been in trouble with the regulator for offering new customer betting offers to self-excluded customers.
In 2018, the Gambling Commission found that the operator had breached its obligations to keep self-excluded from gambling people out of its promotional marketing communications and was fined £1m.
