What’s the catch? Where’s the fine print? Nothing is ever free. You can’t get something for nothing. These are all the cliches usually attached when an offer looks too good to be true. What is the point of someone offering you something for free if they don’t get something out of it. With all the ads online, in the press, and on television, there always seems to be some disclaimer usually written in small letters or spoken very quickly. Even medicine ads come with, “In some cases may cause death.” In The United Kingdom the Advertising Standards Authority is the watchdog group who is responsible for monitoring this type of activity. Even for online casinos.
They are doing just that, and recently they came down hard on the online bookmaker William Hill. The ASA told executives at William Hill to stop running two press ads and one banner ad, at least not in their current form. The ads in question state that new customers who open up telephone or online accounts would receive £100 (about $163 US) in free bets for the site. However, a complaint was lodged. The complaint stated that the ads were untrue because they did not clearly state that when a player collected his or her winnings the £100 was to be returned.
Obviously, William Hill officials did not think there was any confusion and that these types ads were not out of the norm with other ads of similar online gambling sites. They claimed that the a player could keep their winnings and since they wining s were made on the a free £100 it was still a free bet.
The ASA’s ruling was as follows, “We considered that, because the increments of free bets were only awarded as a result of minimum spends by the consumer; customers would expect those bets to be treated in the same way as any other bet and to get their stake back along with any winnings.” Thus all printed and online advertising for the gambling site must now be revised to more accurately describe the terms and conditions of the promotional offer.
