There are thousands of brands facing the same regulations and competing of the same customers. Are casinos in crisis because of it?
There are so many regulations in the industry, that all the brands are cornered. There are regulations against bonuses, against loyalty programs, against registrations and even against on how they look like. By that we refer to the law, where animation style brands are not allowed anymore, because those might attract under aged players. Someone forgot to tell the regulator, that it is illegal to play – since they cannot prove their identity before gambling. That´s the latest law, which was introduced in the UK.
From now on, players in the UK cannot even try the games for free. They have to register an account and prove their identity before they can hit the tables. Now, this is a good regulation when fighting against under aged gambling for sure. But is it getting too hard for casino brands to get customers. Is the ultimate goal to kill the industry?
After all, sometimes you just visit the casino, without yet being completely sure about gambling -with real money or not. Then you just might give it a go for free games before making the decision, this you were able to do without creating account. And you know what. Problematic players will prove their identities for sure, because they need to gamble.
Now, it is a bit of hassle that before you can even play for free, you need to create an account and prove your identity, before even playing for free. Do you want to go through that hassle, if you are not sure if you are going to play or not? Once you did so, probably you are gonna play a few Sterling, right? Since if you didn´t you would have to go to another casino and go through the same.
So in the end, this system might just increase the gambling, instead of decreasing it, which was probably what the UKGC wanted. Because, playing free games actually means that you cannot win anything. Even if you won something with free spins, you would still have to prove your identity before making a withdraw.
So, all of this might have put all the brands in crisis. It is getting harder to get new customers and the path for the brand image is getting narrow as well. What can they do anymore? Soon all the sites look the same? Everything will be grey and sounds are not allowed? Most likely the only people who would gamble then, are the ones with problems, since why would they stop. They will always gamble. Funny thing is, that at first, all the rules and regulations were introduced so that the problematic gambling would go down.
Our columnist wrote on another article about what is happening in Sweden. Over there the situation has already gone much further. For example, bonuses and loyalty programs are not allowed anymore.
There is an old truth, which the older generations are familiar with. Too many rules will only create other markets for the demand. These other markets are run by the criminals, because why would they care about the rules. They are criminals. For this reason, it is reasonably, that even though the intentions are good, all the regulations would stay reasonable, so there would not be other markets. All the players cannot be treated as possible problem players.
Gambling has always been there and always will be. If you have noticed problematic behavior in yourself, please visit begambleaware.org
