Experts reported on proper casino advertising in Ukraine
At the end of February the head of all slots casino International's legal department answered popular questions in the regulators' jurisdiction, talking about branding and promotion tactics in casino and betting advertisements. The interview was conducted as part of Ukrainian Gaming Week, an event organised in Kiev by Smile-Expo.
First of all, according to Tetyana Klymenko, the European region of non gamstop casino markets pays special attention to content advertising. Legislators and researchers have noted high impact of advertising on society, especially on gambling addicts and children. The expert specified that coronavirus pandemic and restrictions forced European associations and regulators, including governmental bodies, to increase monitoring of gambling on the web because of the increase in users and customers of such services.
Klimenko said that the protection of the population would be lost if the correctness of management of gambling advertising activities was not regulated. Thus, the expert spoke about the example in the form of the Code of European Betting and Gaming Association, because it reflects direct management tools of gambling content advertising. This is primarily product moderation, "minor" protection (restrictions on advertising during airtime for children and teenagers, age qualification for social networks), innovative sponsorship measures, campaigns to increase the responsibility of game developers, operators, products.
Klimenko added that the UK Gambling and Lottery Oversight Commission could provide unique software to enable providers to properly and restrictively advertise their casino and betting products with an understanding of the states of gambling addiction.
For example, the UK advertising watchdog, has proposed the following restrictions for the gambling industry: protection of minors under 25, transparency of marketing and accounting, social responsibility, content must not encourage or support irresponsible behaviour, no advertising is ever placed on illegal sites, there is a shared responsibility among affiliates, advertising cannot exploit gambling addiction and the susceptibility of players to unauthorised behaviour.
In Spain, for example, gambling advertising is strictly controlled. For example, athletes of different categories are forbidden to participate in such ads as actors or models because of the protection of minors.
In the context of Ukraine now there are fines at the legislative level for advertising of unlicensed operators, or advertising that violates certain legal provisions, the expert concluded. In terms of betting business, for example, a fine for such advertising will be about three hundred average wages of an employee in Ukraine - about two million hryvnias.
Recall also that the festival-action Ukrainian Gaming Week was held during the last week of February, the notorious Smile-Expo was the organizer of the event and many companies providing online casino and betting services were supporting it. The event featured speakers representing the first licensed companies, multinational partners, as well as representatives from the Duma and the Office of the President of Ukraine.
