Ad description
A page on the website www.spinpalace.com stated "£1000 FREE ...1st deposit - 100% Match Bonus".
Issue
The complainant, who had taken up the offer, challenged whether the ad was misleading, because it did not make clear that any money deposited could not be withdrawn until wagering requirements were met.
Response
Spin Palace said they did not consider that the complaint had any merit because the ad contained a link which stated "Click here for terms" and that when that link was clicked on, full and comprehensive terms could be viewed, including text which stated "You will be unable to withdraw any amount from your account until you've met the wagering requirements i.e. played through all the funds in the Bonus Account ...". They said they felt they had been proactive in emphasising that terms applied to the offer and had gone so far as to provide a one-click link through to the full terms and conditions. They told us that welcome bonuses such as theirs were widely used in the online casino industry and that they were considered a fair and standard practice. They did not believe that the condition in question was any more significant than any other, including those that related to age verification, fraud and the parties' obligations, and they therefore did not feel it would be appropriate for that condition to appear any more prominently.
Assessment
Upheld
The ASA noted that the offer in question was also subject to a condition which meant that consumers would be unable to withdraw any of their own funds that had been deposited into their account until they had placed bets totalling 40 times the value of the welcome bonus. We considered that that condition would be crucial to consumers' understanding of the offer and of the commitment that they would have to make in order to take advantage of it, particularly as the offer was aimed at new players who might subsequently decide that they did not wish to continue to use the site and who would then be unable to retrieve their original deposit without wagering 40 times its value. We considered that such a condition was sufficiently significant that it would need to be clearly stated in the ad itself and, because that was not the case, we concluded that the ad was misleading.
The ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules
3.1
3.1
Marketing communications must not materially mislead or be likely to do so.
and
3.3
3.3
Marketing communications must not mislead the consumer by omitting material information. They must not mislead by hiding material information or presenting it in an unclear, unintelligible, ambiguous or untimely manner.
Material information is information that the consumer needs to make informed decisions in relation to a product. Whether the omission or presentation of material information is likely to mislead the consumer depends on the context, the medium and, if the medium of the marketing communication is constrained by time or space, the measures that the marketer takes to make that information available to the consumer by other means.
(Misleading advertising) and
3.23
3.23
Marketing communications must make clear the extent of the commitment the consumer must make to take advantage of a "free" offer.
(Free).
Action
The ad must not appear again in its current form.
