L and L Affiliates Europe - Free Games Notice Compliance

[casinonewbie]

Got this below today - FYI in case this affects you and missed it.

"Dear Affiliate!
We are writing to you with regards to a change in UK licence conditions which affects us and all of our Affiliates who offer free-to-play/demo (“F2P”) games to UK players.

L&L Europe Ltd., and all of our brands, are licensed by the Gambling Commission of Great Britain. Under new licence conditions, we are required to ensure that any of our Affiliates who offer F2P games to players who reside in the UK have an age-verification process in place.

New regulations mean that F2P games can only be offered to UK players who can verify their age. If you offer F2P games to UK players and you do not have an age-verification process in place, you must remove any material, promotional or otherwise, (including all links) concerning our brands:

• All British Casino;
• Casino Casino;
• Fun Casino;
• Hyper Casino;
• No Bonus Casino;
• Yako Casino;
• Yeti Casino.

Although the new F2P policy is already implemented and applied by the Gambling Commission, we understand this can reflect in a big amount of work for some affiliates, therefore we will allow a transaction period to update your websites with a compliant age verification process, until the 10th of July, but we kindly ask you to get in touch and provide information about your plan asap.

We remind you that you are bound by the terms of your Affiliate Agreement with us. As part of this Agreement, you must be compliant with our terms and the terms of our licences, which may change from time to time.

At L&L Europe Ltd., we truly value all of our Affiliates. In order for our mutually beneficial working relationship to continue, we ask for your full cooperation in this matter. Your understanding and cooperation are appreciated. Unfortunately, if you choose not to comply with these new guidelines, we will have no choice but to terminate our Agreement with you.

Please contact your Affiliate Manager to confirm that you have read this newsletter and, if necessary, your plan of action concerning this matter. If you do not have a dedicated Affiliate Manager, please connect with Massimo Matteazzi (Head of Affiliates):"

 

[hazartnata]

We got the same message from few partners already. It seems they have a reminder from UK Gambling Commission to all licensees regarding age verification of customers accessing free-to-play titles, warning that they are ultimately responsible for ensuring affiliates apply such checks:

As a result, licensees must ensure the new LCCP provisions on free-to-play games are applied to gambling affiliates they employ, meaning advertising methods may need to be amended.

 

[AussieDave]

I don't promote to UK (I block it)... BUT this is what was posted on Tuesday the 2'nd July 2019.

This is the latest article by Gambling Commission regarding free-to-play games:

"Licensees are responsible for the actions of third parties with whom they contract for the provision of any aspect of the licensee’s business related to the licensed activities.’’ Also that licensees must “require the third party to conduct themselves in so far as they carry out activities on behalf of the licensee as if they were bound by the same licence conditions and subject to the same codes of practice as the licensee”.

Licensees should therefore ensure the new LCCP provisions on free-to-play games are applied to gambling affiliates they employ. This may require advertising methods to be amended. The new requirements do not apply to other forms of advertising such as screenshots or videos of games which might be available on gambling affiliate websites, as these do not allow interaction by the customer. In these cases, there is existing marketing and advertising rules as well as the Remote Technical Standards (RTS), 6A paragraph d. The requirements do not apply to B2B suppliers who are offering demo versions of their games in order to sell them to commercial third parties, rather than consumers. Existing regulation is detailed in RTS, 6A paragraph d."

The article could be found at the GC official website: https://www.gamblingcommission.gov....ng-available-through-gambling-affiliates.aspx

The 1'st section (as we know) places the onus of marketing behaviour of UK promoting affiliates, on the program(s). Don't get caught out on this one. It could be used to terminated your partnership.

1. Some programs are saying you must have age verification in place;
2. While others are saying NO you must not allow UK customers access to demo-games.

Which statement is correct?

Going on the bold wording (from the UKGC's mouth) #2 is correct.

In which case, I think those who have free-game-demos are no longer permitted to allow UK customers to access them (age verification or not). The new rules specifically state: Only B2B supplies are exempt from these rules.

Affiliates are: B2C (not B2B)

 

[Biti]

The 2nd statement is the safest. I see nobody mentioning concrete what is an age verification process. Are that visitors confirming they're 18 or older? Are that visitors filling in their birth date? Or do visitors have to show their passport in front of their webcam, etc.

NetEnt is both an affiliate and a provider. Interesting to see what they're going to do. Their website is in no way anymore 'a website to sell their games to commercial third parties, but just another website to drive traffic to casinos and get paid for that.

 

[danniee]

Most casinos seem fine with a simple age confirmation. If the UKGC has something else in mind they better specify exactly what they mean. Like Biti said, show the passport infront of a webcam? All of this is getting ridiculous imo. Not only the over regulation but how both casinos and affiliates have to guess everytime another rule is imposed.

And why would videos be fine and not the demos. Nothing makes sense anymore.

 

[NDG]

Here is something that I got from Energy Partners earlier today.

From their perspective, it seems that this only applies to affiliates that are promoting directly to the UK market.

The UK’s Advertising Standards Authority has again stressed that UK-facing affiliates must implement suitable age-verification to prevent under 18’s from accessing free-to-play demo games.

An affiliate is classed as ‘UK-facing’ if one or more of the following applies to them:

• Is registered with UK address in the affiliate program
• Has a marketing source with .co.uk or .uk TLDs
• Is using GBP currency on any part of website
• Is showing UK postal address in the footer of the page
• More than 15% of customer base is from UK

 

[danniee]

It's perfectly clear that no one knows for sure how to interpret this ridiculous rule as is typically the case when regulators come up with something new. Most programs are fine with an age confirmation box in place which is how I personally interpret it as well. Only one so far has said otherwise, but I told them that I'd rather remove their brand instead of removing the games if it comes to that. Seems they backed off, but we'll see.

To me, it makes no sense to sink to this level for the UKGC. It's play money after all. Shouldn't we ban all games then that uses some sort of made up currency or that could urge you to gamble, if even ever so slightly. There are plenty of one armed bandit mobile games for example. Besides, it makes no sense to require age check on games but not big win videos.

Little by little, these clowns are pushing gamblers to take the leap to play at off-shore casinos. That's typically what over regulation will result in. And yes, I think we're already there now.

 

[AussieDave]

NetEnt is both an affiliate and a provider. Interesting to see what they're going to do. Their website is in no way anymore 'a website to sell their games to commercial third parties, but just another website to drive traffic to casinos and get paid for that.

There are a couple of other supposed B2B game developers, who have cottoned on to the idea of marketing casinos. It truly begs the question... Does the UKGC actually audit these sites? I'm guessing no!

Well... they need to IMHO.

It makes a farce of B2C (affiliates) laws by allowing B2B game developers to use a flaccid (bogus) age click-wrap.

I'm wonder if the UKGC are even aware some B2B developers are promoting casinos?

Edit:
Thought maybe they block casino marketing from UK visitors, so tried another browser (Opera) and a UK VPN. Nope... The only difference between the following page and non UK traffic is the "no deposit bonus" link is missing.

games.netent.com/gb/casino-bonuses/

Impossible to miss, loads above fold, top center of home page Netent.com, with the following words to grab one's attention:

Try Our Games
Better gaming begins right here

FREE-GAMES-BUTTON/LINK

Maybe a UK based affiliate could contact the UKGC and ask why NetEnt is not bound by the B2C laws on age verification?

 

[danniee]

Seems NetEnt has blocked UK IP now?

It's all a bit confusing given the fact that the UKGC doesn't always communicate things very well. We all assume that demo games are not allowed unless you have an age verification service in place, but where exactly does it state that a tick box is not sufficient? Sites like Youtube don't check your age against a database and neither does Netflix. Even if we all know the answer to this question, it needs to be communicated better and more explicit in my opinion otherwise we end up second guessing. What exactly constitutes "age verification"? For most sites, including alcohol and tobacco sites, it's just a simple tick box thingy more or less.

Also, this rule becomes sort of redundant anyway since you can just link to the external sites where the demos are allowed per UKGC rules, for example B2B sites, or demo games on casinos without a UKGC license who do not accept UK traffic. It's probably a grey area, but still.