GME3: Ontario, We Have a Problem, X Abandons Promoted Accounts, and Twitch Bets Against Gambling

In this week’s GME3 we’re covering the AGCO’s latest enforcement of the Registrar’s Standards, the sunsetting of one of X/Twitter’s oldest advertising features, and the expansion of Twitch’s community guidelines around gambling content. Read on for the full stories!

Gambling

Ontario, We Have a Problem

The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) has fined gaming operator Apollo Entertainment Ltd. CAD$100,000.00 for failing to meet Ontario’s requirements for responsible gambling. The fine is due to multiple alleged violations of the Registrar’s Standards, including:

• “Failing to conduct required interventions with players who may be experiencing gambling related harms. This included the case of a player experiencing over $2 million in losses in under four months without receiving interventions from the gaming site operator during that period.

• Failing to implement an adequate voluntary self-exclusion program, as well as providing insufficient tools for players to set financial and time-based gambling limits (i.e., loss and deposit limits).

• Failing to ensure their employees understood the importance of responsible gambling, including assisting players who may be experiencing gambling related harms.”

This fine is a strong signal that the AGCO clearly takes responsible gaming seriously. CEO and Registrar, Tom Mungham, had this to say about the situation with Apollo: “The AGCO’s goal is to ensure Ontarians can enjoy online gambling on sites that operate fairly, responsibly and provide important player protections. All registered operators have an obligation to proactively monitor patron play for signs of high-risk gambling, and must take appropriate actions to intervene and reduce the potential for gambling-related harm.”

Apollo has reportedly been “responsive” to these findings and has already begun to take steps to rectify these issues. While Apollo does have the right to appeal this decision, their compliance implies that they may not take that course of action.

With the fines levied against the operator Betfred in the UK last month, it seems that gaming regulators across the globe are taking steps to ensure that all operators are complying with responsible gambling guidelines.

Media

X Abandons Promoted Accounts

Earlier this week X retired one of their oldest (and most lucrative) advertising features – Promoted Accounts. Promoted Accounts (also known as Follower Objective Ads) work by prompting users to follow your X account directly in their timeline, increasing follower count and engagement. Businesses will no longer be able to access this feature going forward.

The decision to retire Promoted Accounts seems questionable, as the feature brought in over $100 million every year in advertising revenue for X. Part of the justification for canning this feature is its simplicity – a Promoted Account ad would not display any content directly, just prompt users to follow the relevant account

While the simplicity made Promoted Accounts easy to sell, the feature no longer aligns with X’s values and plans for the future. X aims to focus much more on media, such as videos, as a means of attracting users and advertising so it’s not too surprising that a static feature like the Promoted Account would be phased out.

Since its acquisition by Elon Musk earlier this year, X has become a turbulent platform when it comes to advertising. While introducing new features could provide opportunities for advertisers to innovate their marketing campaigns, retiring old, reliable features like Promoted Accounts will definitely cause some damage in the short term. It’s crucial for businesses to keep up to date on any changes that could impact their marketing strategies.

Entertainment

Twitch Bets Against Gambling

The popular streaming platform Twitch has expanded its ban on gambling content. The ban has been extended to the online casinos Blaze and Gamdom, in addition to the wave of other sites that were banned in October 2022. 

Twitch aims to ban all sites that provide slots, roulette, or dice games that aren’t “licensed either in the U.S. or in other jurisdictions that provide sufficient consumer protection.” While Blaze and Gamdom are not officially available in the US, users can still access them through VPNs.

This follows a development from earlier this month, where Twitch prohibited the promotion of Counter-Strike skin gambling platforms. For the unaware, in the game Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) players can obtain and trade skins and other cosmetic items. Some especially rare skins have been sold for hundreds, or even thousands, of dollars.

This has led to many players flocking to third-party CS:GO gambling sites, platforms where you can play slots for a fee and be rewarded with (potentially) valuable skins. Many people criticized these sites (and the streamers who promoted them) as being predatory toward minors.

As of August 2, 2023, Twitch updated their community guidelines to outright ban any streamers who promote, use, or are even sponsored by these CS:GO gambling websites. This will have a big impact on some streamers, including large esports organizations like G2.

Twitch appears to be taking responsible gambling very seriously. The platform averaged 2.58 million concurrent users in 2022, with a significant number of them being under the legal gambling age. It’s become more important than ever to make sure your gambling business is licensed and compliant with all responsible gambling legislation. If you have questions about your business’s compliance, reach out to Jack at jack@gmelawyers.com and he can answer any questions!