A recent complaint to the Advertising Standards Agency saw an advert on a social networking site banned because it was considered misleading after just one complaint. The advert offered a £10 free bonus to people registering for the first time but didn’t clearly link to the terms and conditions which state “entry to the promotion is available only to persons over the age of 18 who do not have any previous account with the promoter”.
In response to the claim Cassava (Lucky Ace Poker) said that the bonus was not given as the system checked their email details and found they had accounts at other brands that the company run. This got us thinking, there are several bingo brands online today that advertise free money but only if you don’t have accounts at other brands…
The complaint against Cassava was upheld (you can read the full adjudication here) so will this have set a precedent now? Are we set to see a number of complaints received by the ASA for brands on the networks run by Cozy Games Management / Chelbis?
When you visit sites on the networks run by Chelbis / Cozy Games Management (full list here) it is not clear that if you hold an account on a site on the Best Bingo Network list that you cannot register with another using the same email address and claim the bonus. The same goes for other brands on the networks from this company. You can register with a Best Bingo Network site and then a brand on one of the other networks with no problems though.
A read through the terms and conditions of 88 Bingo simply states that “Players are allowed to have only one account per household, shared computer, physical address or internet connection.” This makes no mention of the network and could be understood to mean that only one account is allowed per site.
Would these sites be asked to include references to their terms and conditions on the flash banners of their home pages if a complaint was received by the ASA? Here at Playing Bingo we certainly think they should, we definitely make sure it is included in our reviews.
