Social Media Tracker: Are casino and bingo brands really promoting responsible gambling on social media?

With the heavy influence of the UK Gambling Commission and the ASA, the promotion of gambling sites and land-based casinos has changed a lot over the years. While in the past, operators were able to promote their products more freely, they now have strong rules to follow or they face fines.

One of the most important things that operators need to consider is responsible gambling. This is something which is addressed on casino and bingo sites – but is it approached on social media? With Responsible Gambling Week only a month away, we thought we’d take a look at this issue in more detail.

The promotion of gambling activity on social media channels is something which is now heavily regulated. Of course, it can be hard to pin down the exact brands that are breaking the rules, despite the hard efforts of the UKGC. While the rules might seem slightly extreme, we must look towards the impact of social media advertising on responsible gambling and the people that we are targeting.

A recent article from The Guardian stated that 130,000 children under the age of 18 were flagged on Facebook as being “interested in gambling”. While this is not due to the individual operators, it only heightens the importance of the UKGC in implementing stricter regulations on this. The implication of this is that when operators are targeting their audience on Facebook and other social channels, they are targeting people in this age group. This then does not put them in a good light when it comes to the promotion of responsible gambling.

Responsible Gambling Week

While responsible gambling is important year-round, there is an upcoming week which involves operators and staff from the egaming industry in the UK doing what they can to help players. While responsible gambling might not be great for business, operators do have a duty. In the UK, around 0.7% of UK gamblers are thought to have a problem with gambling and males aged 25-34 are most at risk.

Responsible Gambling Week takes place this year 7-13 November. This is said to be the biggest ever campaign and will involve over 100,000 staff members from various brands making an effort to change how this industry is seen. Some of the events during this time will include ‘take a break sessions’ among other things.

Sky Bingo

There are many casino and bingo brands out there that are putting forward a poor effort when it comes to promoting responsible gambling on social media but there are also some who are doing slightly better. We thought we’d look at Sky Bingo as a case study due to its large following on Facebook of over 50,000 likes.

Sky Bingo is a popular brand that has many tools for players to take advantage of. This is strongly advertised on its site but what about social media? Interestingly, the Sky Bingo Facebook page has a tab just for responsible gambling. This comes with a large graphic and links to all of the responsible gambling features on the site including cool off periods and self-exclusion. This is not something which you see everywhere and it is quite impressive.

Sky Bingo uses video content on social media but it always makes sure that they are meeting the UKGC guidelines when they do so. Its Facebook cover video has a banner at the bottom which mentions “When The Fun Stops, Stop” and has a link to the begambleaware.org site. This shows their commitment to keeping players safe online.

Sky Bingo doesn’t just add this standard banner to its content either, it shows its commitment in their posts. A recent post on the Sky Bingo Facebook page from October was focused on cool off periods. While this post didn’t get as much engagement as their other posts, it was definitely a strong effort. This post received 16 likes, two comments and one share in comparison to a competition that had 222 comments and 66 likes. A similar post was shared on the Sky Bingo Twitter account which has over 6,000 followers.

Sky Bingo is leading the way and while there are other brands offering links for players to get help, they aren’t quite doing it as well.

What’s next?

With Responsible Gambling Week just around the corner, we expect some other big bingo and casino brands to follow in Sky Bingo’s footsteps. While it is important to respect this week being hosted across the UK, casino and bingo brands must step up and do it year-round.

Look out for some exciting content in the coming weeks. Some brands will post the generic ‘gamble responsibly’ content while other bigger brands might push the boat out and show some real responsibility for their players. Social media is the right channel for this kind of content and the UKGC will appreciate any effort made by these brands. If operators do not put the effort in, the UKGC might take the recent research carried out by Facebook and make regulations even tighter. This is definitely something to keep an eye on.

Sharon McFarlane is the managing director of Crystal Content – a digital marketing agency that specialises in igaming. She has eight years’ experience in the industry and has contributed regularly to industry magazines and conferences sharing her expertise on all things digital marketing. Her company (www.crystalcontent.co.uk) offers an outsourced solution for igaming businesses when it comes to: content marketing, social media, UX design, website design, branding and conversion rate optimisation.