Three ASA rulings of interest to gambling operators

Three ASA rulings were published today that will be of interest to gambling operators (each of which can be downloaded below).

First the good news:

  • LeoVegas Plc: an ad for an online casino game that featured stylised, dramatic effects which emphasised that a blackjack player was maintaining a calm demeanour despite being in a tense, decisive moment in the game, but which contained with no suggestion of major risk involved, did not portray gambling in a context of toughness and therefore did not breach BCAP Code rule 17.3.8.
  • 32Red Limited: an ad linking an online slot game with the TV programme ‘Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway’, with viewing figures that showed the programme was never of proportionately greater appeal to under-18s than it was to the viewing population as a whole, was unlikely to breach BCAP Code rule 17.4.5 for being of particular appeal to under-18s (i.e appealing more strongly to under-18s than to over-18s).

and now the less good news:

  • Spotify Limited: inappropriate targeting occurred in the case of an ad (unlikely to cause distress to adults, but likely to cause undue distress to children) that appeared before videos of appeal to children, presented in an enthusiastic manner by a youthful presenter who had won an award from a children’s television network. It therefore now seems that when assessing compliance of an ad that is not age-restricted with the general social responsibility requirement that “marketing communications must be prepared with a sense of responsibility and to society“, inappropriate targeting can still occur if the media used to communicate the ad can be regarded as having particular appeal to children (regardless of the actual viewer demographics).
Download article PDF: LeoVegas Gaming plc - ASA | CAP
Download article PDF: 32Red Ltd - ASA | CAP
Download article PDF: Spotify Ltd - ASA | CAP