Welcome Bonus

What a Welcome Bonus Is

A welcome bonus is an incentive aimed at new customers. In Great Britain it falls under the Gambling Commission’s social responsibility code provision on rewards and bonuses (5.1.1), which covers any incentive or reward scheme or other arrangement offered to “any customer, or potential customer” under which a customer may receive money, goods, services or any other advantage. That provision applies to all licences, including ancillary remote licences, except gaming machine technical and gambling software licences.

Every rule below is the Gambling Commission’s rule for Great Britain, set out in its Licence Conditions and Codes of Practice, and binds Commission licensees, each provision only for the licence types it names. Several rules below, including those on age and identity checks, customer funds and licensed status, do not apply to ancillary remote casino licences. Compliance with social responsibility code provisions is a condition of licences, so a breach may lead the Commission to review an operator’s licence with a view to suspension, revocation or a financial penalty, and would also expose the operator to the risk of prosecution.

The 10× Wagering Cap

A wagering requirement is where a customer is required to make wagers totalling a particular value for funds to become withdrawable. A licensee covered by 5.1.1 must not “Apply wagering requirements, which requires a customer to play through bonus funds, over a maximum of 10 times”, so the multiple is measured against the bonus funds alone.

As an example, take a 100% match on a £100 deposit, an illustrative figure rather than any real offer, which would give £100 in bonus funds. The largest wagering requirement a covered licensee may apply to that is 10 × £100 = £1,000 of wagers, not 10 × (£100 + £100) = £2,000, which would be double the maximum.

A covered licensee also must not include more than one type of gambling product (betting, casino, bingo and lottery) within an incentive, or alter or increase the receipt, value or amount of an incentive if the qualifying activity or spend is reached within a shorter time than the whole period over which the benefit is offered.

Separately, ordinary code provision 5.1.2 says covered licensees should only offer incentive or reward schemes in which the benefit is proportionate to the type and level of customers’ gambling. That is a should because ordinary code provisions do not have the status of operator licence conditions but set out good practice: a departure may be taken into account by the Commission on a licence review, but cannot lead to a financial penalty.

Terms You Can Find and Read

A licensee covered by 5.1.1 must set out an incentive’s terms and conditions so that they are clear, transparent and fair, and readily accessible to any customer or potential customer to whom it is offered. Social responsibility code 5.1.9, which applies to all licences, adds that each marketing incentive’s terms and conditions must be made available for the full duration of the promotion.

Under 5.1.9, a Commission licensee must also ensure that all significant conditions of a marketing incentive are provided transparently and prominently, and must present them at the point of sale and on any advertising for it. Where limitations of space make that impossible in an advert, information about them must be included as far as possible, the advert must clearly indicate that significant conditions apply and, online, they must be displayed in full no further than one click away.

More broadly, licence condition 7.1.1 says a covered licensee must ensure the terms on which gambling is offered are not unfair within the meaning of the Consumer Rights Act 2015, and must comply with them; customers must be notified of material changes before they come into effect.

Age, Identity and Payment

Under social responsibility code 3.2.11, a covered licensee’s procedures to prevent underage gambling must include verifying a customer’s age before the customer can deposit funds, access free-to-play versions of its gambling games, or gamble with their own money or any free bet or bonus. Under licence condition 17.1.1, a covered licensee must obtain and verify information establishing a customer’s identity, including but not restricted to their name, address and date of birth, before that customer is permitted to gamble. Before permitting a deposit, it should tell customers what identity documents or other information it may need, in what circumstances, and in what form and manner. Licence condition 6.1.2 says a remote licensee covered by it must not accept payment for gambling by credit card, including a credit card payment made through a money service business.

Withdrawals and the Money in Your Account

Under 17.1.1, a withdrawal request must not result in a requirement to supply additional information as a condition of withdrawal if the licensee could reasonably have requested it earlier, though that does not stop a licensee seeking information it must obtain at that time because of any other legal obligation.

Under licence condition 4.1.1, a covered licensee that holds customer funds must ensure they are held in a separate client bank account or accounts. Under licence condition 4.2.1, a covered licensee that holds customer funds must set out clearly in its terms whether those funds are protected if it becomes insolvent, the level of that protection and how it is achieved, and give that information to each customer in writing on their first deposit, in a way that requires them to acknowledge it before the funds can be used for gambling, and again on the first deposit after any change in its terms on that protection.

Harm, Self-Exclusion and Marketing

Under social responsibility code 3.4.3, a covered licensee must tailor its action to the number and level of indicators of harm a customer exhibits, and must prevent marketing and the take-up of new bonus offers where strong indicators of harm, as defined within its own processes, have been identified. Under 3.5.3, a covered licensee must, as soon as practicable, take all reasonable steps to prevent marketing material being sent to a self-excluded customer.

Under 5.1.11, which applies to all licences, consumers must not be contacted with direct electronic marketing without their informed and specific consent, unless expressly permitted by law, and each contact must give them an opportunity to withdraw that consent. Under 5.1.12, a covered remote casino licensee must offer options to opt in to direct marketing per product and per channel as part of registration, set to opt-out by default, so every option stays off unless you choose it.

Complaints and Disputes

Under social responsibility code 6.1.1, a covered licensee must ensure it has arrangements for customers to refer a dispute to an ADR entity in a timely manner if its complaints procedure has not resolved it to the customer’s satisfaction within eight weeks of receiving the complaint, where the customer has cooperated in a timely manner. The services of any such ADR entity must be free of charge to the customer.

Checking a Site’s Licence

Licence condition 8.1.1 requires a covered licensee providing remote gambling to display, on every screen from which customers can access its gambling facilities, a statement that it is licensed and regulated by the Gambling Commission, its account number, and a link supplied by the Commission to its current licensed status on the Commission’s website. A Commission licensee can be based outside Great Britain (licence condition 12.1.2 covers remote casino licensees with gambling equipment abroad), so where a site is based doesn’t tell you whether it holds a Commission licence; the Commission-supplied link does.

Before taking a welcome bonus from a site licensed by the Gambling Commission, we’d check these points.

• The wagering multiple. Work the requirement out against the bonus funds alone, then compare it with the 10× cap; a requirement above 10 times the bonus funds is more than a licensee covered by 5.1.1 may apply.
• The full terms. Open and read them before opting in, including any significant conditions an advert flagged.
• The licence link. Follow the Commission-supplied link on the site to its current licensed status.
• How you pay. Have a payment method other than a credit card ready before you sign up.
• Identity documents. Note what the site says it may ask for, when and in what form, and have it ready: a covered licensee must verify your identity before you can gamble, though another legal obligation can still mean a request at withdrawal.
• Funds protection. Find what the terms say about protecting your funds if the site becomes insolvent, and read the notice you acknowledge on your first deposit.
• Marketing choices. At registration, opt in only to the products and channels you want to hear about.
• The complaints route. Find the complaints procedure and how an unresolved dispute goes to ADR before you need either.