Sky Vegas could face legal action due to promotional emails

[Silberman]

Basically what happened is that Sky Vegas sent promotional email to previous clients that had opted-out of this, now while this many not seem like a big deal, and most of the time it is not, a number of those that received those emails were recovering addicts doing their best to stay away from the temptation to gamble again, an offer like this could be what they needed to go back to the addiction they were trying to overcome, so while I have the tendency to think this could have been an honest mistake it is still very worrying that something like this can happen as it could derail the recovery of those struggling to control their gambling.



https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/gambling-commission-b965600.html

[mu_enrico]

I'm not a Sky Vegas user, but it seems the casino is a well-established casino and thus this kind of mistake is unacceptable for a company of that scale. It's also unusual if you already click opt-out and still get the email. However, if you only do self-exclusion, maybe you'll still get the emails. Anyway, this is a great learning lesson when someone use self-exclusion, the casino should also stop sending emails, sms, etc.

[Hamphser]

Basically what happened is that Sky Vegas sent promotional email to previous clients that had opted-out of this, now while this many not seem like a big deal, and most of the time it is not, a number of those that received those emails were recovering addicts doing their best to stay away from the temptation to gamble again, an offer like this could be what they needed to go back to the addiction they were trying to overcome, so while I have the tendency to think this could have been an honest mistake it is still very worrying that something like this can happen as it could derail the recovery of those struggling to control their gambling.

The error or mistake could really be simple but the effect is really big into those people who are trying out get rid of gambling addiction and im not surprised that there were people who did really make out such action or complaints about those promotional emails despite of being cancelled or opt out.

Once a user had opt out then they should really be that serious on implementing those and not just simply ignoring.So what are those choices for in the first place?

They should really prepare on what would they would answer in regarding into this one because if there are complaints then expect on something like this.

[Oceat]

The word "could" won't affect the casino that much since most casino did it all the time, but I believe that the gamblers have a choice to unsubscribe or unfollow this kind of email if they don't want to receive any updates from the casino. Although, the CEO apologized to the public via tweeter due to unknown reason or someone mistakenly sent those emails.

But I believe it was the casino's fault for breaching the data with their previous customers. I think they could face serious legal action soon because it's clearly a mistake to send an email to a recovering gambling addicts.

[worldofcoins]

It's not only that people opting out of promotional emails of gambling casinos, but there had been casinos that closed their prior gambling website and made a new one,
Then sent emails to the users that were registered on the prior website and those users didn't register on the new website yet.

I'm not sure if i can find the thread of that website here.

[magneto]

That's very interesting.

This will be one of the things that the online crypto gambling space will have to improve upon.

I'm getting a ton of spam emails from a load of crypto gambling providers, and it's pretty annoying to be honest. I've definitely unsubscribed from a few but still getting notifs from them - it seems like that they don't really care about regulatory compliance.

[dunfida]

Then why they had opened up their email into those users who had trying to get rid of their addiction?If you do know that you've been able to used it on your gambling activity before then its just right or sensible for you

on not to use or access those emails but if you are using your main ones and cant really be avoided then you could just simply not open those since you know it is from the gambling site/place itself.

Dont know if this would really be a strong legal issue because the house itself could really make out some defend in regarding on the situation.

[timerland]

Basically what happened is that Sky Vegas sent promotional email to previous clients that had opted-out of this, now while this many not seem like a big deal, and most of the time it is not, a number of those that received those emails were recovering addicts doing their best to stay away from the temptation to gamble again, an offer like this could be what they needed to go back to the addiction they were trying to overcome, so while I have the tendency to think this could have been an honest mistake it is still very worrying that something like this can happen as it could derail the recovery of those struggling to control their gambling.



https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/gambling-commission-b965600.html

Definitely should be prosecuted.

Although I don't think that they will necessarily be punished by that much, it'll likely just be a fine or something of that nature.

Companies definitely need to take gambling addiction seriously and make sure that voluntary opt-outs are in place and actually work. Even if it instated, but it fails to unsubscribe etc., then there is really no point of having this in the first place.

[Fatunad]

~

Definitely should be prosecuted.

Although I don't think that they will necessarily be punished by that much, it'll likely just be a fine or something of that nature.

Companies definitely need to take gambling addiction seriously and make sure that voluntary opt-outs are in place and actually work. Even if it instated, but it fails to unsubscribe etc., then there is really no point of having this in the first place.

It should be applied and never ever tend to go overboard on still sending those emails despite that they had been opt-outs just like what others been saying on here.Companies
should really be that indeed serious on applying those things because on what reason or purpose they had put it in on the first place? For sure they would really be charged
up with some fines which this isnt really that much a big of an issue but still an eye opener for other businesses that they should strictly follow even with this
slightest kind of detail to miss out.

[adzino]

If it was an error/mistake, then yeah, its an expensive mistake. Those who are addicted and trying to recove could actually sue them. I guess others who aren't will also try to take advantage of this. The casino should have been more careful.

-snip-
so while I have the tendency to think this could have been an honest mistake
-snip-

Even if it was an honest mistake, they won't be able to prove it. At least they will be learning a lesson from this and make sure they take proper precaution next time.

[famososMuertos]

Certain types of mental illnesses, if not all, live within a critical limit of control and only need a small disturbance to make them lose the ground they have gained and in gambling addicts this is a good example, a "mistake" that has repercussions in a period of indeterminate time for those affected.

Just as everything positive adds up to recovery, an action of this type ruins months or even years of great effort to recover.

[dothebeats]

If people already opted out of such promotional emails, it is the company's obligation to observe and respect such decisions. Sky Vegas receiving legal repercussions for their actions is, IMO, just and valid. Even if some of the recipients are not recovering addicts, this is still like a breach of trust or agreement. Mistake or not, Sky Vegas should just own up to what happened and face the consequences.

[uneng]

Then why they had opened up their email into those users who had trying to get rid of their addiction?If you do know that you've been able to used it on your gambling activity before then its just right or sensible for you

on not to use or access those emails but if you are using your main ones and cant really be avoided then you could just simply not open those since you know it is from the gambling site/place itself.

Dont know if this would really be a strong legal issue because the house itself could really make out some defend in regarding on the situation.

I imagine it must be a big temptation for gambling addicted people to receive free spins emails and not open it. It's like offering to an alcoholic his favorite drink with the perfect look and adornments around the glass expecting he is going to deny it (of course it isn't going to happen). So it's a big mistake from gambling companies to play with the emotional of people passing through an addiction recovery or treatment and with so many new regulations popping everywhere to restrict gambling activity and advertisements even more, I'm pretty sure there are serious legal consequences for these unsolicited promotional emails, otherwise the casino wouldn't be so worried about apologizing for the situation.

[Obito]

In my opinion both party will be at fault in all of this, I mean those recovering addicts that are determined to recover will see this as a challenge for them to see if they'll relapse, I think it's an honest mistake but at the back of my mind says that there's an intent behind all of this because they want to make profit out of these people and we know how addicts that have relapsed do, they are going to go all out with their addiction again. Maybe this can be settled outside of the court to make things much easier.

[molsewid]

I imagine it must be a big temptation for gambling addicted people to receive free spins emails and not open it. It's like offering to an alcoholic his favorite drink with the perfect look and adornments around the glass expecting he is going to deny it (of course it isn't going to happen). So it's a big mistake from gambling companies to play with the emotional of people passing through an addiction recovery or treatment and with so many new regulations popping everywhere to restrict gambling activity and advertisements even more, I'm pretty sure there are serious legal consequences for these unsolicited promotional emails, otherwise the casino wouldn't be so worried about apologizing for the situation.

Sky Vegas take the responsibility for this big mistake which it isn't appropriate to happen by all means on the first place however, the damage has been done, I just do hope that those vulnerable people have had take precautionary measures and hopefully didn't have the guts to open the promotional emails because this will only lead their treatment into nonsense. This kind of incidents will be a big lesson to every gambling establishments or gambling sites to become more aware of whom will of this kind email must receive, let's say even if they change their site and have had used their old records of gamblers I think they must still consider which one of them are still interested or simply have a simple background check to person's profile before they would include them in their chain promotional emails.

[poldanmig]

I think in this case sky vegas has done quite a big mistake by forcing their users who have quit gambling to go back to doing free online spins on sky vegas, i don't know if the email was intentionally sent to these people manually or indeed this is automatically through a server so that all email ever recorded on the server will receive it?
But what is certain with this incident, sky vegas get a lot of lawsuits and even many petitions asking for the EFL competition to immediately terminate their sponsorship deal with Sky Bet.

[Wexnident]

Well if the lawsuit actually goes through then this could damage the image of the casino, but only IF it could. I'd reckon the casino would do some PR for this though since they wouldn't want to exactly let this explode out of proportion, touching upon gambling addiction is a sensitive subject for everyone after all, especially since they themselves are a gambling casino. Still it would leave a permanent mark on their names though, they probably need to do some stuff to appease those that were involved as well as the higher ups.

[acroman08]

I wish the legal action goes through. they may say that it was an honest mistake or an error of some kind but mistakes like this can be devastating to recovering addicted gamblers. they should be held accountable for this. they should know as a well-established casino, mistakes like this can have serious consequences. I hope if there is a recovering gambling addict who got affected by this, gets helped.

[mindrust]

Basically what happened is that Sky Vegas sent promotional email to previous clients that had opted-out of this, now while this many not seem like a big deal, and most of the time it is not, a number of those that received those emails were recovering addicts doing their best to stay away from the temptation to gamble again, an offer like this could be what they needed to go back to the addiction they were trying to overcome, so while I have the tendency to think this could have been an honest mistake it is still very worrying that something like this can happen as it could derail the recovery of those struggling to control their gambling.



https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/gambling-commission-b965600.html

That's why you build your business overseas where the law is not too strict. Otherwise you can get ruined for stupid shit like this. Spam emails... who doesn't do that nowadays? We need to punish every drug company because their viagra ads are targeting recovering sex addicts?

He should have moved his business to Curaçao or somewhere similar.

[Kakmakr]

I really feel for these gambling addicts, because with Google algorithms and historic data .. those people are targeted for that kind of promotions too. Apart from that... Gambling sites other than Sky Vegas are advertising on TV too, so the urge to gamble might be triggered by these advertisements on other platforms too.

This might be one of the reasons why platforms like Twitch are banning gamblers that are streaming and promoting gambling referrals during their sessions.

You will never be blocked off 100% from gambling advertising, even if you opt out of one single casino. Sky Vegas should be given a huge fine, even if this was done by mistake.