Wazdan, a provider of innovative casino games, has unveiled a special Gods Clash promotion. It will leverage Wazdan’s Mystery Drop tool and will see the company supply a prize pool of $160,000 for the occasion. The promotion will run from February 20 to March 5, providing fans with the chance to win extra prizes when playing the provider’s slot games.

Thundering Prize No Mortal Can Resist

The Mystery Drop tool is a part of Wazdan’s entire portfolio of slots and is included in its top-performing mythology-inspired titles such as Power of the Gods: Hades, Power of the Sun: Svarog and Power of the Gods: Medusa.

Partners can enjoy and launch the promotion “seamlessly and quickly,” the release states, promising that Wazdan will handle the entire setup. Operators don’t have to worry about paying out winnings from the promotion as the supplier will make direct payouts from the prize pool into players’ accounts.

Furthermore, Wazdan has powered its partners with ready-to-use marketing materials, allowing them to advertise the Gods Clash promotion. The new promotion will help operators boost their customer engagement and retention while providing end-users with extra chances to win prizes.

The promotion is already available in casinos, allowing customers to play Wazdan’s mythological games for extra prizes. The supplier described these as “unimaginable riches that no mortal will resist.”

Andrzej Hyla, Wazdan’s chief commercial officer, spoke on the new promotion. He said that this represents a new way for Wazdan to benefit its clients.

The Gods Clash Network Promotion marks another way for Wazdan to give back to its partners, containing our tried and tested promotional tool that increases key performance metrics.

Andrzej Hyla, CCO, Wazdan

Hyla is certain that players will be just as excited about the promotion as it will “boost the allure” of their favorite Wazdan games. The CCO concluded that the promotion will “massively ramp up” players’ engagement.

Wazdan used the opportunity to also talk about its plans for the next few months. The company released a Network Promotion roadmap that covers the first half of 2023. Wazdan plans to follow up the Gods Clash promotion with an Easter Drop promotion that will run between April 3 and 16 and will have the same prize pool. Then, from May 15 to August 15, Wazdan will run Breaks the Rules, its biggest promotion yet. The company has prepared a prize pool of over a million dollars for the occasion.

Organizations including Lancaster University Management School (LUMS) and Lancaster University’s Psychology department, the leading provider of drug and alcohol treatment, Delphi Medical, Blackburn foodbank, as well as Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS have all joined forces for the new project. Ultimately, the new research seeks to determine the prevalence of problem gambling for the region and possibly attract funding to tackle problem gambling.

The research plans to identify people that are affected by problem gambling and help them receive treatment and support. To help with the assessment of the patients, the researchers will use a short set of questions that will be used by the medical professionals. Those questions are expected to serve as key markers for problem gambling.

The research will collect data for the next few months. Once the collection is completed, the data will be assessed and the researchers will unveil the results of the study. Once this happens, the NHS, police, as well as other public organizations will be invited to discuss the results of the study. The research seeks to become a starting point for a debate and assessment in the market and at the same time bring positive change and help people affected by problem gambling.

Problem Gambling Brings Financial and Emotional Harm

Citing Government figures, Lancaster University explained that there are some 460,000 people affected by problem gambling in the UK. An additional 3.8% is also impacted by at-risk gambling as well. Those cases contribute to an estimated £1.27 billion ($1.5 billion) per year spent by the government in the UK on problem gambling and associated costs.

“Clinicians tell us that problem gambling is a growing issue across our region and is increasingly seen as a trigger for mental health as well as financial crises – but unlike drug and alcohol addiction, current NHS systems are not set up to capture data on problem gambling.“

Dr Carolyn Downs, project lead from Lancaster University Management School

Dr Carolyn Downs, Lancaster University Management School’s project leader, explained that the rate of problem gambling in the country may be higher than the official figures. Citing data from clinicians, she added that problem gambling doesn’t bring only financial crises, but it is responsible for mental health crises as well.

Still, Downs said that currently, the NHS doesn’t collect data for problem gambling, as it does for cases of alcohol and drug addiction. “So, at the moment it is impossible to get a true picture of how many people are suffering, and what this addiction may be costing the county,” she explained.

To capture this data, the new research, starting this week will include three simple questions for people that visit foodbank, Delphi Medical or NHS mental health teams in Blackburn or Blackpool. Finally, Downs said that the questions are not intrusive.

The new study was completed in partnership between VicHealth and researchers from the University of Queensland and Monash University. It probed into gambling ads seen on social media by 16-to-25-year-olds.

Overall, the report examined data from 83 young people. From that total, 54 of the participants were aged 16 and 17 years old. The recent whitepaper revealed that each of the 54 participants had “assigned an average of 787 advertising interests by 194 advertisers.” But what’s worrying is that the advertisements included gambling, unhealthy food and alcohol companies.

Alcohol ads were most prevalent in the 16 to 17 years-old group, with such ads appearing in the feeds of 93% of that test group. Looking at the bigger picture, 42% of all participants age 16 to 25 years had assigned advertisements about alcohol within their interests on Facebook, the study claims. Some 21% of the 16 to 25 years old had assigned gambling as interest.

When it comes to how often the ads were seen by the 16-to-17-years old group, 62% admitted to seeing gambling ads regularly or sometimes. A similar percentage was observed when it comes to alcohol ads with 58.6% admitting to seeing such ads sometimes or regularly.

“Unhealthy food ads were the most common; participants aged 16 years captured 244 unhealthy food ads, 19 alcohol ads and 1 gambling ad, while 17-year-olds captured 493 unhealthy food ads, 85 alcohol ads and 49 gambling ads,“

explains the new study

Urgent Changes Are Needed

Caterina Giorgi, FARE’s CEO, explained that seeing an algorithm on Facebook attach alcohol as an interest for children is unacceptable. She urged for reform in the sector and the protection of children that are online.

“Governments need to implement common sense reforms to protect children and young people from being bombarded with digital marketing of alcohol, gambling and unhealthy food.“

Caterina Giorgi, CEO at FARE

Giorgi warned that companies that offer unhealthy foods, alcohol and gambling services are leveraging machine learning to try and sell their addictive products to children. According to her, unless a change is implemented, the children may have an interest in such products when they grow up.

“In their ad model, Facebook attached more alcohol-related keywords to young people who drank more alcohol.“

Nicholas Carah, Associate Professor and Director of Digital Cultures and Societies at the University of Queensland

Nicholas Carah, an Associate Professor and Director of Digital Cultures and Societies at the University of Queensland, added that the study uncovered a trend that children, under the age of 18, are specifically targeted by unhealthy foods, alcohol and gambling ads. He pointed out that a link was uncovered between the use of alcohol and alcohol-related keywords. Finally, Carah explained that the new whitepaper suggests that Facebook is identified young people that have consumed alcohol for example and then targets them with such ads.

The bill would have expanded on the current regulatory makeup of the state which allows for in-person sports gambling concentrated in casinos in Deadwood and tribal casinos, which are currently the only options.

No Online Betting in South Dakota for a While

Mobile betting could significantly scale the sports betting activity in the state, as it would provide local fans and bettors with the added comfort of betting from any part of the state. To achieve this, special geofencing software would be introduced to verify that each transaction happens in-state.

But any changes to the legal makeup of sports betting in the state will now have to wait a while longer. The proposal sought to enable voters to weigh in on whether the state should legalize sports gambling further and expand it with an interactive option during the next general elections.

The bill similarly sought to address several problems that current legislation simply does not. While opponents of the law fear that mobile gambling would mean the end of Deadwood casinos for one, the proposal, backed by Rep. Greg Jamison, who is its primary sponsor, argues to the contrary.

If anything, says Jamison, the lack of mobile betting legislation is exacerbating problems, not helping fix them. His bill would have raised additional funds to help preserve historic Deadwood.

Blackmarket, Addiction and Lack of Clarity

He also alleges that there is a fair degree of black market gambling going online because punters still prefer to place a wager remotely rather than travel to a casino. Jamison clarified:

What’s happening in effect is that all these revenues are bypassing the state of South Dakota. This question I think is intended to bring those individuals back into compliance, let them enjoy the gaming that they would like and the revenues help go to the city of Deadwood.

Rep. Greg Jamison

But others, such as Rep. John Mills, are concerned about what the expansion of gambling could mean for the state. In particular, Mills is worried about addiction issues among the population and argues that a WalletHUb.com study proves the soaring rates of addicts in the state.

Their number is put at anything between 15,000 and 20,000 young adults in South Dakota. Mills cautions. Yet, denying the problem is not the same as solving it – black market operations exist. They probably have to do with a fair degree of the rate of addiction as well.