Posted on: December 10, 2024, 04:17h.
Last updated on: December 10, 2024, 04:17h.
Pizza Hut is under fire in the UK for offering free online casino spins with its home deliveries.
For a brief period of time last month, online orders at the restaurant chain were accompanied by a message congratulating customers for “unlocking” up to 300 free spins via an online casino promotions company, Free Spins Loops.
“No deposit required! Claim your spins today!” it beamed.
Attention was first drawn to the promotion by an X user, Ben Jones, who uses the handle “@ExGambler4Life.” He noted that no apparent effort had been made to establish whether he was over 18 – the legal gambling age in the UK – or whether he had previous problems with gambling.
As it happens, Jones has had very serious problems. He is a recovering gambling addict who was imprisoned for three years in 2019 for embezzling £370,000 (US$472,000) from his employer, a cake decorating company, to feed his compulsion.
He was understandably dismayed to receive the message after purchasing a pizza.
Is Pizza Hut Taking a Slice?
The promotion was part of a commercial deal between Pizza Hut and Free Spins Loops, which is owned by a business called Digital Adventures, The Guardian reports.
A spokesperson for Digital Adventures told the British newspaper that the promotion was live with Pizza Hut only for a short amount of time before being “proactively removed” on November 28, the day after Jones’ X post.
The spokesperson to say whether Pizza Hut would have received a cut of the losses incurred by customers who took up the promo.
They blamed third-party advertising networks for the promo appearing to Pizza Hut customers. They insisted the advertisement would not have been seen by anyone under the legal gambling age because “these placements are controlled by an external programmatic network that has built-in 18+ age-protection capabilities.”
Stuffed Crust
Former Conservative Party chairman Iain Duncan Smith MP, who chairs a cross-party parliamentary group examining gambling harm, said the incident shows the government needs to tighten regulations on gambling advertising.
This is yet further evidence of how out of control gambling advertising has become. It’s not even possible to order a pizza without online casino products being pushed on to people,” he said on the X platform.
Pizza Hut also has marketing deals with gambling companies in the US in states where it’s legal. Several social media users have posted of their surprise at being offered unwanted sign-up promos for BetMGM or FanDuel after checking out for a pizza.
One promo read: “You earned a first-bet offer of up to $1,000. Playoff action is heating up and BetMGM has got you covered. Register and play today.”
