Real-money vs. free-play: game performance

[jetset]

Freeplay vs. real-money action

We've discussed this issue before - notably most recently in that long Spielo-GTech thread involving the Gibraltar regulator.

This is how 888 presented the issue to the UK Adveretising Standards Authority - which didn't buy the deception:


Cassava Enterprises found itself on the UK Advertising Standards Authorities (ASA) agenda again for the second consecutive week, this time for a 888.com website ad featuring a promotional game called "Wild Gambler".

The game invited users play in demo mode using free spins before parting with their real-money. The complainant maintained that, in demo mode, every other spin gave a substantial win, but challenged whether that was the case when users played with real money.

Cassava responded that the free play game was a very basic game designed to give consumers a sense of the look and feel of the Wild Gambler game itself and that it wasn't governed by an RNG or any complex algorithms as the real-money game would be.

The ASA considered that the ad was insufficiently clear that the demo mode was provided as an example of the promotional game's visuals only, but did not also represent the likelihood of winning or losing, concluding that the ad was likely to mislead.

 

[Slotster!]

I sort of feel a bit sorry for operators in these circumstances. This is no more than an flash/animated gif advert really - which regularly show five jackpot symbols or wilds or whatever stacking up. Like the 'previews' next to the games in the MG Lobby.

I guess it was different because it was interactive, but still, you're not logging in and selecting 'free play' (or the comical 'practice' play - I need to practice how to press a button over and over and over again )

Sometimes people have to be able to think for themselves and understand that it's called gambling for a reason.

Then again a lot of people are thick.

 

[dunover]

I sort of feel a bit sorry for operators in these circumstances. This is no more than an flash/animated gif advert really - which regularly show five jackpot symbols or wilds or whatever stacking up. Like the 'previews' next to the games in the MG Lobby.

I guess it was different because it was interactive, but still, you're not logging in and selecting 'free play' (or the comical 'practice' play - I need to practice how to press a button over and over and over again )

Sometimes people have to be able to think for themselves and understand that it's called gambling for a reason.

Then again a lot of people are thick.

But this wasn't really an elaborate gif. but an interactive 'demo' along the lines of free play. I see your point but the ASA has done us a favour here, in that they have set a precedent to make a distinction between the two variants of 'free/demo play'.

 

[binary128]

I think that if the game developer wants to display the various features of the slot, then they should create a non-interactive "movie" that does this. They could label this movie "Game Features Demo", and might even go so far as to add a parenthesis (Display results are not indicative of actual game play.)

Personally, I would also consider the use of the word "Preview" to be potentially confusing. "Preview" as it applies to a new movie - OK. "Preview" as it applies to something on which I am going to wager money - no.

If what they have created is interactive (Player has to click a Spin button), then there is just way too much potential for confusion there. That might be mitigated by the labels "Game Features Demo" and "Display results are not indicative of actual game play." (And both of these labels would have to be in a font size greater than 11px!

BTW - we're guilty of the "Practice Casino" label. But we have 2 times more non-slot games than slot games, and it was these games we were thinking of when we used the word "Practice".

Chris