Proposed Digital Services Act Is A Win for Regulated Online Gambling

Earlier this month the European Commission published its groundbreaking new proposal for a stronger more unified European digital marketplace. The proposed revision of the EU’s current digital sphere contained two key pieces of legislation, these being the Digital Services Act (DSA) and Digital Markets Act (DMA).

While this proposed legislation is not specifically aimed at the online casino and online betting markets should the legislation be written into law it will have a profound impact on how online casinos can market online and on the safety of the players who frequent them.

Understanding the DSA

The EU member states currently have fairly similar regulations when it comes to handling online content however the newly proposed DSA aims to put in place a unified legal framework that takes into account the realities of everyday digital life.

In particular, it will create a standardised approach to recognising and dealing with illegal and harmful online content. The DSA will include not only the responsibilities of the parties originating the content but also those platforms who disseminated this third party content.

The DSA requires that platforms provide users with the following:

1. Simple and effective processes for flagging and taking down illegal content
2. Transparency on the action taken surrounding illegal content – including feedback to the content poster and public reports on recent actions taken to shutdown harmful content
3. Require that online platforms clearly state how any user data will be used, to what extent human reviews are used and what machine learning or AI are involved
4. Websites allowing product or service sales must include Know Your Customer processes, ensures sellers inform buyers of all necessary product-related facts and even have tracking information on hand to allow unhappy buyers to track down errant sellers should it be required
5. Adverts will need to be clearly highlighted as such, as well as give the user insights into who the advertiser is, why they are seeing the advert and meaningful information on the advert in question

As you can the above regulations will go a long way to protecting the gambling community from unscrupulous marketing and advertising practices. It will also ensure that Safer Gambling requirements are not contravened, however, should a transgression occur the player will have the tools needed to act against the offending company.

 The DSA Stands by You

In many cases, the individual player may not feel that they have the resources to take on a company that they feel has abused their trust. This is where the DSA comes into play as, even if you cannot do something as an individual, it has included a specific set of penalties for non-compliance:

• Non-compliant companies face penalties of up to 6% of their annual turnover when found guilty of contravening the DSA
• Parties found not to comply even once fined will face ongoing monthly penalties of up to 5% of their daily turnover, in addition to the initial 6% penalty

Given that under the DSA all online platforms will be required to have a legal representative in the EU they will fall under EU business law and face legal action from the European Commission and the European Board for Digital Services.

 The DMA in Action

The other side of the proposed legislation is the Digital Markets Act which serves to protect online businesses from being overwhelmed or even abused by large online platforms such as search engines, social media platforms, digital messaging apps, and others.

Under the DMA these dominant platforms will have to abide by the following:

1. Predetermined prohibitions aimed at reducing unfair business practices, including restrictions on favouring their own products, ensuring cross-platform compatibility and requiring that data generated business users and their customers must be made available to them
2. Platforms cannot restrict business users and their customers from doing business outside of the platform in question
3. The Commission retains the right to investigate business practices to evolve their prohibitions and practice regulations to keep pace with digital advances

What the average Facebook or Google user does not realise is that the companies they interact with don’t have access to their own business data. This is because Facebook, Instagram, Google, and others hide that information away to force businesses to spend money on their paid media services. Having full access to their own business data once again will be a financial and growth gamechanger for many of them.

Given that online searches and social media platforms are key points of connection between online casinos and their patrons, the DMA will benefit everyone concerned… other than the large platforms who have hidden this access behind a paywall.