eGAP Promotions And Customer Support Guidelines

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Earlier articles have covered the eGAP guidelines formulated by eCOGRA with respect to responsible gambling, player protection and game fairness. These are the main areas of concern, but by no means exhaustive. This article discusses two areas, which are advertizing and promotions and customer support.

All business enterprises need to advertise in order to build clientele and online casinos are no different. eGAP guideline however require that online casinos should endeavor to employ well balanced advertising and marketing campaigns in line with responsible gambling good practices. The eGAP guidelines go on to spell out specific practices. Advertising shall contain factually correct information and shall not be false or misleading, particularly with regard to player winnings. The advertisements shall not target underage individuals and shall not be displayed in media meant for underage individuals. Online casinos shall not encourage players to chase their losses; or convey that wagering will guarantee wins. Online gambling should never be portrayed as a means of income. These guidelines should be enforced by the online casinos on affiliates and other third parties advertizing on their behalf.

Most online casinos offer promotions to their players. The eGAP guidelines require that the terms and conditions for the promotional activities should be clearly displayed with a date and time stamp. The online casinos shall not unreasonably alter these terms and conditions subsequent to the wagering activity. The players on their part must ensure that they correctly and completely understand the terms and conditions before participating in the promotions. In case of any doubt they should contact the customer support for clarification. In case the doubts still persist then they should refrain from participating in the promotion.

The broad objective of the eGAP customer support guidelines is that online casinos should provide access to round the clock customer support, where players can be assured of timely attention to complaints and resolution of disputes. The most important guideline is that the contact information for complaints and dispute resolution shall be readily accessible on the online casinos’ websites. The guidelines do not specify the modes of contact, but the prevalent ones are postal address, telephone numbers and e-mail address. But beyond these, live chat is the most convenient mode of customer support and it is not worth playing at online casinos that do not offer this option. Players shall be able to log complaints and disputes on a 24/7 basis. As far as is practical online casinos shall provide assistance and guidance to all players on complaints and disputes in the same language as the content of the site. Online casinos should follow a documented and time bound procedure for dealing with complaints and disputes. This should include keeping records for an appropriate period of time.

Each online casino should appoint an independent third party for ultimate mediation and resolution of disputes. The decision of this third party should be binding on the online casino. The contact information of the third party should be made available on the online casino website. Players should be allowed to contact and communicate with this party directly. eCOGRA acts as the dispute resolution party for all online casinos that carry its seal of approval.

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