The Science Of Compliance
Published On 24th March 2023
In 2017 The UK Gambling Commission decided it was high time to clean up online gambling. The scale of child appealing elements such as cartoon themed slots and sites with mascots in their logos was unacceptable. Furthermore people needed things like bonuses and promotions made a lot more clearer by adding things to indicate affiliate links and terms and conditions. In short the time of compliance was launched. Now as an affiliate we mostly understand the need for such compliance. It's fair to say that having imagery that may appeal to children isn't a good look for gambling. Once everyone had decided what needed to be included with respect to terms (after several interpretations and iterations) then that's part and parcel of being an affiliate now. However compliance has also become a bit of a pain in the butt.
Copy Control
The problem with the science of compliance is that there's no set of rules determined by all gambling operators. What one brand believes is OK another may not like. For example we include a graphical begambleaware.org alongside all our reviews. Some brands are happy with that whilst others want it spelt and linked which in our view is just unnecessary. One of the worst brands with respect to compliance was one that isn't featured on Loquax anymore. Ironically they dropped us under the guise of they couldn't monitor compliance when they actually could. Anyway their interpretation of UKGC rules was that affiliates had to use their content and their content alone. This was either in the form of javascript snippets or you could copy and paste the copy. You couldn't tell your visitors anything else about that brand and ultimately it became impossible to write anything about them. Well unless you're a big affiliate and the compliance rules perhaps don't quite apply. We'll come to that more a little later.
Don't Mention The Critters
Thankfully compliance hasn't been an issue for a while now but it's reared it's ugly head again. Yesterday we were asked by a leading UK gambling brand to remove references to certain games that they have on their site because the games may have child appealing elements or casino elements. In short you can reference some things on the site but not other things. For example if there's a game featuring blocks then that's fine but if there's one with critters then it's not. Now if we don't make changes to our content within seven days we get suspended as an affiliate with that particular brand. Now this is where the science of compliance starts to confuse us. If those involved in compliance think that us referencing a game that is actually part of a brand's roster could be a problem then remove the game. Because it may well escaped their attention that a Google search of "game"+"brand" brings up your own website. Why is a child more likely to decide to visit a bingo site because they've spotted the word "critter" in our review - having found us via search - than go direct to the destination via search? Perhaps stop your own content being found on Google?
Selective Compliance
And this is where selectivity seems to rear it's head with respect to compliance. What we do find confusing is that our reviews for this brand don't exactly jump out on search. Other content such as game reviews that does better within search wasn't flagged as uncompliant (although we have removed it). Which begs the question how is the science of compliance so selective? How did whoever flags things decide that our not very well visited review page with minor references to games we now can't mention needed to be flagged but didn't spot the reviews? Furthermore why haven't they spotted that other gambling portals have referenced the games in their content and - at least so far - that content is still there. Is there one rule for some affiliates with respect to compliance and another for others? We'll obviously check in in seven days time to see which portals still feature the games we cannot name and what content remains. Or will we have a situation as with the content controller above who seemed to allow some reviewers to add content but not others.
Opening A Can Of Worms
Decisions by compliance departments to start dictating what an affiliate can and cannot mention doesn't sit well. If your roster contains XYZ games then as an affiliate it should be fine to mention XYZ games. If it isn't then the brand should not have XYZ games. Furthermore what happens when Brand A decides that the word - for example - Fluffy isn't appropriate for inclusion in reviews whilst Brand B doesn't have an issue. What happens if Brand A is running a bingo game with the same theme as Brand B but one doesn't want you to mention smiley faced icons but the other is OK. It seems that the science of compliance is still a unique subject for each and every operator as opposed to a sensible approach by a united industry. It also seems that there's a lot of time spent determining minutiae rules that whilst tick a box perhaps don't solve a great deal of a problem.
The Stupidity Of Compliance
Because UKGC rules prevent us from using social media or sending out a newsletter our audience stems from search. This means that Little Johnny, armed with his parents debit card, has to find our site via Google, locate the mention of the game we now can't mention, head to the brand where the game with child-appealing elements may appear, get through that brand's controls on under-age gamblers signing up, deposit and then play. Oh and whilst Little Johnny is searching he has to avoid the search links for the brand direct and any other portals that mention the game that can't be mentioned. It's only when you lay it out like this that the stupidity of compliance like this can really be seen. Yes as an affiliate we should be making sure our content is on point and properly termed and referenced, but for the love of sanity can people in compliance start discovering just how the internet works before compliance completely destroys the whole industry.
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