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Online casinos 'failing customers'
Chips are down on customer service

By Gemma Simpson

Published: Monday 27 November 2006

The UK online gambling industry is ignoring customer enquiries and failing to offer adequate customer service, new research has found.

Out of the 100 UK online gambling sites contacted by customer services company Talisma, only 60 per cent replied to email enquiries and 16 per cent of calls went unanswered.

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Posing as a customer, Talisma asked the e-gaming businesses whether betting via the internet is legal in the UK, after the recent introduction of the US anti-internet gambling bill, to see how hot the sites were are responding to customer queries.

Of those that did respond, all said gambling in the UK was still legal.

The survey also showed most gambling websites don't have joined-up customer service. Four-fifths of websites had separate systems supporting various communication channels, for example email and online chat.

This means staff are not able to access the necessary information to solve enquiries, creating frustration in the customer and, in all likelihood, lost business, the research found.