BGO entertainment has been fined €354,200 (£300,000) by the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) for having misleading advertisements on its website and another three affiliate platforms.
After having raised concerns with BGO regarding advertising in Summer 2015 and establishing that the company and its affiliates were releasing ‘misleading advertisements’ as part of their promotions, the regulatory body has now imposed their first marketing-related financial penalty as the operator has deceived customers and breached social responsibility rules.
The programme director at UKGC, Paul Hope, said that they want to ensure that gambling is conducted in an open and fair manner. He continued to say that they have taken such serious measures in order to make it clear to the industry that creating misleading advertisements will not be tolerated, and they have the power to stop it. They want all operators to note that issues which are identified in the decision notice will most likely form the basis for compliance assessments in the near future, and could very well lead to them taking action, as they have done now.
The regulatory body also said that BGO were fined so heavily as they did not address these issues in a timely or effective manner and they also inaccurately led them to believe that they had seen to their concerns regarding misleading advertisements.
UKGC is now using this case as an example and a warning to the rest of the industry to make sure that advertising is done in accordance with their regulations and is not carried out in a deceitful manner.
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