The ASA has clamped down on another bingo website siding with a complaint suggesting the bingo sites promotion was 'irresponsible and misleading'. The promotion described as 'Debt Free 2011' provided players the opportunity of having their personal bills paid for to the amount of £200 per month for a whole year.

The person complaining claimed that the prize was 'unlikely to cover the debts of an average person'. The assessment of the complaint by the ASA upheld the two issues addressed by the complainant as follows:

1. The ad was irresponsible as it suggested the gambling was represented as a possible solution to debt and financial problems. Reference was made to content on the promotional page that stated:

No more stress, no more worries and no more running away from the morning postman!

This breached 5 of the CAP Code rules in Edition 12

2. The ad intimated to readers that if they were lucky enough to win the promotion they would have ALL their bills paid for 2011. The ASA felt that the value of the prize was unlikely to pay the average person’s bill for 12 months even though the prize value was clear on the Terms and Conditions accessible from Sing Bingo promotional page. The ASA felt that as it was a “significant condition” of the promotion it should have been part of the main body of the promotional text.

This breached 2 of the Cap Code rules from Edition 12

The ASA have ruled that Sing Bingo are not allowed to run this promotion in its current form.