Another online bingo company has had a TV advert banned after complaints from viewers. This time however it is not Tombola.

888ladies has had an advert banned by the ASA after advertising a top prize of £5 million was reported a by a single viewer. The two adverts were broadcast at the beginning of the year in January and February. One of the adverts which was 30 seconds long showed a woman screaming with excitement as she had won a game of bingo that came with it the chance to take part in the 'massive £5 million game'. In both the adverts, the other being just 10 seconds long, the voice and graphics referred to the £5 million prize on offer.

Now you might be wondering if the prize is available and it is possible for players to win, what is the big deal? Even if the odds of winning were slim, the National Lottery advertises their jackpots so where is the problem? In fact the Euro Millions comes with even lower chances of winning and again we don't see their TV adverts being banned. In addition are 888ladies really that bothered if it is banned?

Operators of 888ladies, Cassava Enterprises, claimed just this excuse and that as with all bingo jackpots while the money that could be won maybe very high the majority of time the actual amount won was less than is significantly less. They also claim advertising material emphasised the 'golden ticket games' which were to qualify for the main game and not the £5m game itself. However, the voice over on the advert does not really support their defence "When you win a golden ticket at 888 Ladies bingo, you're so close to the millions, you can start practising.......".

The ASA decided that the advert should not be shown again in its current form. They claimed that the advert breached CAP (Broadcast) TV Advertising Code rules 5.1.1, 5.1.2 5.1.3 (Misleading advertising) and 5.2.3 (Misleading advertising - qualification).

The decision quite rightfully was based on that the chances of winning the £5 million prize were one in  20 THOUSAND QUADRILLION (if that is the correct term) - you had to get all 24 of the first 24 numbers in the bingo game to win the prize. Clearly when I saw the advert, as anyone who knows bingo well, thought that this is just a joke. In 15 years of being in the industry I have seen and heard of just one game being called in 27 numbers and that was a standard bingo card that had just 15 numbers on it. On an additional point when did anyone last here the term a quadrillion - even google doesn't give you a striaght answer for what a 20 digit number is called!

The idea of the game is that you win the top prize if you match the first 24 numbers and after that the prize money drops for every additional number that is drawn. At 40 balls the prize money remains at a constant £50,000 regardless of the number of additional balls drawn out. The problem is that the chances of winning more than £50,000 is near on impossible. How many times is a standard game of bingo called on 39 numbers of less. Add an extra 9 numbers to the card it might takes years to produce a winner on 39 calls. The chances of winning the top prize therefore made winning the National Lottery or the Euro Millions an odds on certainty. The ASA decided that the sliding scale was a significant part in advertising of the prize money and that the top prize was misleading.

Tombola have had a couple of TV adverts banned following viewers complaints. One of the points that was mentioned to me this morning while looking at the story was that these companies are not regulated by the Gaming Board in the UK and lets be honest were 888ladies intending to show this advert again 6 months after it appeared on TV? Unlikely. As such there is no real punishment for such actions and in fairness, the publicity they have recieved as a result of the advert being banned (including this report) may in fact benefit them in terms of brand awareness. In fariness rather than being disciplined for this someone may have had their career boosted as a result. The difference with gaming companies that are based in the UK or operators suchs Gala Bingo, Mecca Bingo, Fruit Bingo etc. is that the latter have UK bingo sites and a relationship to uphold with the Gambling Commission. They have also had 40 years of experience of working within constraints and boundaries with significant penalties for failure.

Isn't it about time that online gaming companies were regulated in the same way. While at the time that gaming companies pulled out of America for fear of prosecution it was felt that the American rules, relating to cross border gambling were old fashioned and needed reviewing. Clearly the American government will be sitting back and making notes for any future policy reviews, fully knowing that such incidents of online companies justified their decision.