Former gambling addict's interview used as ad for online casinos
An interview a former gambling addict gave to L1 about the dangers of gambling was reworked and turned into a commercial for online casinos. The ad started circulating on social media a few days ago, L1 reported.
Lia from Kerkrade gave an interview about her gambling addiction in April last year. She told how she lost thousands of euros by gambling online. Her interview was shown on television and the L1 website.
On Sunday, a friend sent Lia a video circulating on social media. It was her speaking to the regional broadcaster, but her words had been changed. Instead of warning about the dangers of online gambling, Lia was talking about how she won 12 million euros by betting 20 euros. A link after the video redirects you to a site where you can download apps from all kinds of illegal casinos.
Lia almost fell off her chair when she saw the reworked video on Facebook, she told L1. “I was shocked, especially because people apparently fall for it so easily,” she said. She reported it to the police and will press charges. “These kinds of videos should disappear from the internet. You sometimes hear that famous Dutch people are abused for this, but apparently also ordinary citizens.”
Given the comments on the video, most people realize that it is fake. But according to L1, thousands of people have downloaded the casino apps it links to. “So a lot of people have transferred money and probably not seen anything back. Maybe stupid of them, but I hope - by bringing this out now - to warn them about this,” Lia said.
L1 asked one of the linked gambling sites for a response but didn’t hear anything back.
According to L1 interim news director Bern Opdenacker, this video also puts the reliability of the public broadcaster at stake. “All kinds of techniques make it increasingly easier to make these kinds of video. You can hardly tell whether it is real or not. That’s dangerous.”
Last year, the government tightened the rules for online gambling, among other things, by introducing a playing limit of 700 euros per month before players have to prove they can afford to gamble more. There are also restrictions on gambling ads. But parliamentarians have been pushing for even stricter rules, arguing that the current legislation does not protect people enough against gambling addictions. Young people seem to be particularly vulnerable.
Last month, the government announced that it wanted to increase the age limit for risky gambling games from 18 to 21 years. Gambling ads will also be banned entirely.
All licensed casinos must adhere to these rules, but there are also thousands of illegal providers. The government wants to take these illegal online casinos offline, but that has proven very difficult in practice.
