UK bookmakers are reportedly turning to the messaging and voice-over-IP service WhatsApp to get in touch and target vulnerable people in clear violation of the existing rules that do not allow bets to be placed through the application.
As The Telegraph revealed, a number of gambling operators in the UK are currently offering their services to players using WhatsApp, despite they are not permitted to do so by the messaging platform’s own terms and conditions. Under the terms of the Facebook-owned message and voice app, businesses are not permitted to carry out or facilitate games of skill, lotteries and gambling services that are paid with real money. This basically means all real-money online casinos, sports betting, bingo and poker services are not allowed to be offered via WhatsApp.
However, a number of UK gambling companies that are reportedly advertising their services on Google provide their customers with the chance to place bets by using WhatsApp after registering an account.
However, the media hub’s claims have been rejected by a spokesman of WhatsApp, who assured that the messaging app does not facilitate the provision of additional business services to local bookmakers. The spokesman further noted that WhatsApp users are given the chance to easily block any user on the application, and they can also report accounts they believe to be problematic to the app’s team.
Gambling Charities Claim Operators use Messaging App to Target Vulnerable Players
One of the trustees in the local responsible gambling charity organisation BetBlocker, Duncan Garvie, explained for The Telegraph that some operators use the application to circumvent the existing self-exclusion schemes that are available for problem gamblers in the UK. According to him, gambling services offered and executed through WhatsApp could be extremely harmful to vulnerable individuals. Mr Garvie further noted that the country’s competent authorities should take the issue into consideration in order to find a way to reduce such practices to a minimum.
The Telegraph has seen that WhatsApp gambling has been promoted on various websites. One of these websites, McCartan Bet, explicitly warns on its website that it is not part of the UK’s GameStop scheme and customers and customers should contact them via email in case they are willing to be blocked from the website’s services.
As Casino Guardian previously reported, several self-exclusion schemes are currently available in the UK to help people who find it hard to control their gambling habits to ban themselves from placing more bets off- and online. The schemes involve the provision of some personal details so that gamblers enter the exclusion lists of gambling companies that are obliged to turn them away in case they try to place a bet after the exclusion.
However, as claimed in media reports, bets on the messaging platform WhatsApp seem to be in the grey area of exclusion schemes, which allows players to circumvent the ban and actually place bets with some bookmakers in the UK.
Currently, all online gambling operators are required to sign up to the GamStop self-exclusion scheme that enlists gamblers in a database that includes all remote gambling companies allowing them to prevent players from placing more bets.
- Author
Olivia Cole
