Gaming Commission approves new Vodafone “More Money” game

The Gaming Commission has given Vodafone Ghana the green light to launch a new SMS game dubbed 'More Money' to reward faithful customers with lots of prizes plus a GHS 100,000 cash prize for the person that would send the one millionth text message in the game.

An official of the Gaming Commission said Vodafone had met all the legal requirements as per the Gaming Act, Act 722, 2006, which included paying five per cent of the total value of the prizes to the Gaming Commission.

“Once Vodafone has met the requirements and we have approved of the game, if National Lotteries Authority (NLA) challenges Vodafone, the Gaming Commission will take the matter up and fight on Vodafone's behalf,” the official said.

Meanwhile a letter signed by Head of Corporate Communications, Carmen Bruce-Annan said Vodafone would throw the country into frenzy with the game that promises Ghana's biggest cash prize in a mobile based SMS game for an individual.

It said customers would be required to send a text message to a shortcode at 50Gp per text message, which is a premium rate.

Vodafone Ghana was the only telecom operator that ran a customer rewards promotion in Ghana and gave away a prize worth one million dollars to one winner plus other prizes worth 1.2 million dollars without demanding SMS at premium or even regular rates.

But this new “More Money” game, which is not time bound because it runs until the one million text message is recorded, is at a premium rate, which is contrary to what previous Vodafone officials said about Vodafone's position of such promotions.

The company said it would go on a float through some strategic streets of the Capital after the launch of the “More Money” game at the Aviation Social Centre on Monday, August 1, 2011.

Some Vodafone customers told Adom News they were expecting that Vodafone would live up to its reputation of not seeking to make profit from such customer reward promotions and keep this one too at regular rather than a premium SMS rate.

Other telecom operators have come under considerable criticism for doing customer reward promotions in which they charged exorbitant SMS rates of between 50Gp and 75Gp per text message.

But the Gaming Commission had said it was legal as per the Gaming Act for telecom operators and any organization to charge premium rates on their marketing promotions, provided they met all legal requirements under the Act.

Story by Samuel Nii Narku Dowuona/Adom News/Ghana