Home Breaking News The AGCOM punishes the “King of Slot Machines” Spike and YouTube: accused of advertising the gambling game
By Marina Flocco – 3 August 2022
In queste ultime hour the Authorità per le Garanzie nelle Comunicazioni (AGCOM) has wanted to announce a bitter surprise for the “King of slot machines” Spike, Google and YouTube. In particular, it was announced that these two important web giants will have to pay a million dollar fine for violating a ban that concerns a specific type of advertising.
For the sake of accuracy, if it speaks of violation of the ban on advertising gambling, with a penalty as provided for in article 9 of the dignified decree, which provides the rule against gambling. YouTube (or better, Google Ireland Limited) was thus sanctioned with a fine of 750 thousand euros, and even the advertising agency Top Ads Itd suffered a fine of similar value, 700 thousand euros to be exact, thus counting a value worth 1 million and 450 thousand euros.
The provision in reality does not particularly refer to advertising messages that are usually shown before a video starts, but to the actual content of a YouTube channel, called Spike. In addition, the same channel is now no longer accessible from Italy, even if some videos are still indexed within the Google search engine.
AGCOM’s intervention against the “Slot Machine King”: YouTube channel of Spike obscurato
AGCOM underlines how this is the first intervention of its kind against a video sharing platform, which has been fined for having hosted the promotion of games with winning money, in clear violation of the laws entered into force in 2018. It was at the time that and gambling content were literally exploded on sites like Twitch and YouTube, and it is important therefore to know that the law sanctions not only the advertiser but also the site used to spread the publicity, considered in this case the “owner of the medium “.
This provision of the Authority could therefore create a strict control and content related to slot machines and gambling in general; adesso, alle azidene converrebbe molto più lasciarsi alle spalle eventuali relativi ad esso, se ciò significerebbe altresi receivre ogni volta sanzioni di questa portata. To do this, the colossus of the web will be brought to obscure any content that can hide some kind of “advance” towards the casino and the online betting company, such as video collaborations with non-declared advertising purposes.
In the iniunzione, AGCOM reports that Google passively hosted various illegal advertising content without moving in any way to limit the circulation of advertising related to slot machines and gambling games. In addition, YouTube and Spike were bound by a partnership agreement, also recognizing the status of verified partner. Now, the Authority has ordered the removal of 625 illegal contents still present on the site and its Spike Slot within a week.
This intervention in the face of YouTube and Google now leaves us thinking about a possible future situation similar to Twitch: we remember how its policy now seems to allow the transmission of content related to gambling, and this same is one of the most followed topics on platform, diramandosi also in three categories between slot, poker and casino. Many users, especially young people, find it difficult to watch people play on their various betting sites, remaining almost hypnotized, involved in cheering or getting sad if the streamer in turn wins during a game or loses a large amount of money.
There have been various attempts to stop this trend at least on Twitch, even with petitions to prevent the spectators from indirectly becoming victims of gambling, but the participation has never been sufficiently significant to be able to change the situation in any way. However, given the measures taken now by AGCOM, surely even Twitch will have to find a way to run quickly to fix it, before falling into a sanction of the same kind.
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