Oh it's worse than that. It was never even legally binding, it was just a finger-in-the air - only after the fact was it treated like the cast iron democratic will of the people while over in the real world the Electoral Commission would've actually declared the whole thing void if it was a legally binding referendum because of illegal overspend by the grifters pushing it in the first place.
The whole thing is maddening to think about, honestly
Dunno where op was but in the UK at least it wasn't possible for the longest time to get the Dreamcast to use a flat rate dial up because Sega did a deal with British Telecom. This made multiplayer pricey af... I know this because my dad was not amused at the £230 phone bill I racked up in the first month of PSO 😅