Two Ads Banned by the ASA in the UK

September 18, 2009 | News Category: Gaming Law

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The United Kingdom Advertising Standards Authority has recently rejected two gambling ads. One ad was for the national lottery, and the other was an online poker ad placed by Betfair.

Although gambling advertising is allowed in the United Kingdom, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is fairly selective, and ensures that the gambling advertisements strictly comply with their guidelines.

The banned ad for the national lottery was an ad that sent in the form of an e-mail to those who have online lottery accounts, and therefore purchase their lottery tickets online. The offending slogan stated "The more you play, the more likely you are to win." While this is obviously true, the opposite is also true, that the more you play the less likely you are to win.

The ASA banned the ad because they said that a marketing campaign such as this could lead to problem gambling by encouraging excessive gambling. A lottery operator released a statement explaining that the slogan appeared as part of a campaign, which featured strange excuses for not buying lottery tickets, such as an alien abduction. Most would have considered the ad somewhat humorous, but the ASA did not.

The ASA seems to operate without a sense of humor, since they have banned other ads where they have missed the point of the humor too. Some ads have even been banned when there has been only one complaint against them.

Betfair's ad features a 20-year-old former World Series of Poker Europe winner, Annette Obrestad. She won the series when she was eighteen.

An ASA statement explained "We noted the code stated that no one under 25 years of age should be featured gambling in a marketing communication, or playing a significant role. Because Ms Obrestad was 20 years old and because, as a professional poker player, she played a significant role in gambling in the ad, we concluded the ad breached the provisions of the code."

While Betfair can argue that Obrestad played an integral role in the ad because she is a champion and a poker professional, they cannot really argue with the very clear guidelines that would prevent the ASA from allowing their ad to be used.

Obrestad's screen name happens to be "Annette_15," which was used in the advertisement. The screen name in and of itself might have been passed over by the ASA, but in the context, it was not likely to. It could be possible to explain that the tagline "Online experience is measures in games, not in years. Join the new breed. Annette_15" is not about young players winning, but one would be hard pressed to do so.

Betfair denied that Obrestad's age played a factor in her selection for the ad.

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