ASA rules that William Hill slot promo encouraged irresponsible gaming
The short timeframe given to redeem the voucher ‘encouraged irresponsible use,’ the Authority said.
Key points:
– The ASA has ruled that an April promotion by William Hill encouraged irresponsible gaming
– This was due to the short timeframe given to redeem the voucher
– The ASA has told William Hill to avoid similar promotions in future
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has ruled a slot promotion distributed by William Hill in April to be in violation of the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) Code.
The promotion saw a customer receive a slot voucher on 3 April at 11:51 am, which read: ‘You’ve won a £5 cash match on any game!… Redeemable between 03/04/2025 – 03/04/2025 from 05:20 PM – 11:59 PM in any venue.’ It was argued that, due to the voucher being usable within only a few hours, and the timeframe of use being only a few hours, it encouraged irresponsible gaming.
William Hill argued this was not the case. The voucher, only available to those who had staked £50+ ($67.40+) on select games on the day of the promotion, included the spend using winnings, not just original cash-in. Moreover, William Hill argued ‘the average cash-in in relation to the three-day promotion was below the average spend for April and May 2025,’ and that the amount requested should not be considered excessive.
William Hill further added that the voucher ‘was a low-value, one-off reward’ with no progressives or multipliers involved. It further stated that the voucher did not require players to remain on premises, and that ‘customers could freely choose not to redeem the reward and doing so did not require any further spend or engagement.’
Good to know: Earlier this week, William Hill launched fully automated bet builders in partnership with Checkd Dev
The CAP Code requires all promotions to remain socially desirable and discourage problem gaming. In its assessment of the case, the ASA wrote: ‘We acknowledged William Hill’s response that the voucher was optional, that only a proportion of eligible participants redeemed it and that most participants redeemed the voucher at least three hours after they had qualified for it, all of which they believed demonstrated the redemption window of the promotion did not encourage irresponsible use.
‘However, we considered that, because the redemption window was limited to a later time on the day it was printed, it meant that most participants could only benefit if they returned to the premises or stayed until the later start time.’
As such, the ASA concluded that the promotion ‘encouraged irresponsible use and breached the Code,’ ordering William Hill to ensure future promotions do not repeat the same offence.
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