Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Prize website owners fined and banned
THE owner of an internet firm that bombarded punters with texts offering Love Island water bottles and other prizes has been fined £170,000 and banned from the market.
The Crowd Offers website charged people £3 a month for texts to enter competitions. But some subscribers complained they had never signed up to the alert service.
A tribunal found that owner Unicate – which made more than £100,000 – had, among other criticisms, failed to handle complaints properly.
Joanne Prowse, of the Phone-paid Services Authority, said: “Unicate broke rules.”
MPs have united to increase pressure on the Government to ban TV and internet gambling adverts.
The move is part of calls for action on the epidemic of betting addiction, which is causing misery for hundreds of thousands of young people and adults.
In a Commons motion, MPs from different parties led by former Tory minister
Mike Penning have called on the Government to go further than the current voluntary ban on ads during live sports before the 9pm watershed.
They want gambling adverts on TV and the internet axed outright.
Mr Penning, who is MP for Hemel Hempstead, said: “These adverts are part of a serious problem of gambling addiction. The Government is reviewing what measures need to be taken so it is important to keep up the pressure.”
Spending by betting companies on online commercials has risen by 56 per cent in the last five years.
The industry spends an estimated £747million on online marketing, compared to £234million on TV ads.
Gambling accounts for more than eight per cent of the total UK advertising market which, according to market research group Nielson, is valued at £19billion.
In an Early Day Motion, the MPs say gambling addiction can “completely destroy” lives and families – in some cases causing suicide. Tories, Welsh and Scots nationalists support it and Labour is expected to follow suit next week.
Around 430,000 adults are estimated to have a gambling problem. Last week it was reported that betting firms may have to take their names off football shirts.