The UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) carried out a survey of 796 adverts from gambling companies for the week commencing 1st July 2010 (World Cup period) and found that 31 adverts failed to comply with the guidelines. Adverts relating to bingo failed the compliance test because they suggested bingo could offer a solution to financial problems. The only two gaming areas found in the survey to breach the ASA guidelines were online bingo and online bookmakers. How many online bingo adverts have been banned now? How many of these companies are based in the UK and regulated by the Gambling Commision?

The rate of compliance was 96.1% which was 2.9% down on 2007 when the compliance rate was 99%

The Compliance team considered only ads for gambling products, falling under the following categories:

• Bingo

• Bookmakers

• Casino

• Football Pools

• Lotteries

• Online Gambling: Bingo

• Online Gambling: Betting Exchanges

• Online Gambling: Bookmakers

• Online Gambling: Casinos and Poker

• Online Gambling: Gambling Supermarkets.

The main problem ads were for online bookmakers and online bingo services. The majority were press ads offering “free bets” and “bonus bets” without including the significant terms and conditions of those promotional offers as required by rule 34.1a of the CAP Code and clarified by an ASA adjudication (adjudication at Appendix 7). Some of those ads also failed to include a closing date and one featured a man, playing a significant part, who looked under 25.

Two ads in magazines for online bingo services were likely to breach the Code because they implied that playing bingo could offer a solution to financial problems and were considered likely to prey on vulnerable consumers.

Let's be honest if your an online gambling company based offshore, not regulated by the Gambling Commission do you really care if you advert gets banned after you have shown it and got the results. It's like a bonus if it gets banned, you pay for the advert to drive your brand and then someone complains and your brand gets more publicitiy, but this time for free!

About ASA

The ASA is the independent body that administers the CAP and the BCAP Codes (‘the Codes’), which set standards for the content, scheduling and placement of non-broadcast and broadcast ads. The ASA accepts complaints from public and the industry about advertisements and, where appropriate, it investigates complaints, proactively identifies and resolves breaches of the Codes. It also uses research to ensure its decisions take account of generally accepted standards and promotes and enforces high standards in ads generally.