Bet365 Receives a $2.75 Million Penalty for Misleading Australian Players

In the aftermath of a huge scandal involving false free money offers, the self-proclaimed largest gambling company in the world - Bet365 was charged and convicted for misleading Australian gamblers and fined with a $2.75 million penalty - an amount deemed by Rod Sims, chairman of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, as an ''appropriate'' punishment. While he considers Bet365 to be the worst among companies using deceptive practices to lure unsuspecting players, he believes this case should send a fair warning to all of them to cease such malevolent practices. Between March 2013 and January 2014, the company ran a bonus money campaign aimed at new players and offering a $200 free bets. Unfortunately for them and those deceived by this offer, the terms and conditions were not clearly outlined and consequently prevented players to fully understand what the pros and cons were and even if there really were any. This fact was what helped prosecutors rest their case, but some still insists the blame is on players alone for being either overly naive or not careful enough. Here is what the 'bonus' was actually about : in order to be eligible for the free cash, players had to not only make a $200 deposit beforehand, but were also required to gamble both the bonus and the deposit three times before being able to cash out their winnings. Apparently this was not clearly stated in the campaign, leading to Bet365 generating a considerable revenue worth over $29 million in 2014 alone. On their part, Bet365 claimed and continues to claim that the cause of all this mess was a certain software error they have since worked out. As for all the deceived players, the company was ordered to send them a corrective notice via e-mail, but what exactly does this constitute remains to be seen.