The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) scolded the gambling operator ProgressPlay for promoting some games that could be appealing to children.
The online gambling company, which owns and runs the website www.m88.com, felt the UK advertising regulatory body’s backlash after the ASA investigated and upheld three issues related to the operator’s products. Fairer Gambling challenged the website, seen on January 25th, 2018 for promoting three games that young individuals could find attractive. The first game, “Fairytale Legends Red Riding Hood” depicted an animated image of a pixie and a wolf. The second game, “Fairytale Legends Hansel and Gretel”, showed an animated image of a forest, while the third game, “Fairies Forest” displayed an animated image of a fairy in a forest.
The complainant, Fairer Gambling, challenged the website, saying that the content of the three games’ ads could be found particularly attractive by children and shared its concern as young individuals are usually more susceptible to gambling.
This is not the first time when the company has been scolded by the ASA. Back in December 2017, ProgressPlay suffered the regulatory backlash for offensive promotional tweet posted earlier that year.
ProgressPlay Response to Accusations
ProgressPlay responded to the filed complaint, saying that the three above-mentioned games were available to play in demo mode. In addition, as a result of the ASA investigation, the operator has made the games available only when members of the website log in in their accounts. What is more, the three games’ graphics were modified in a way to exclude all images that could encourage children to gamble.
The complaint made by Fairer Gambling was addressed for the interim period at the time when the game’s promotion was under investigation. The website explained that the games were produced by a third-party developer and also appeared on other gambling companies’ websites.
The online gambling operator further shared that it was also aimed at meeting all responsible gambling issues with their business partners, and explained that it was never willing to make their games appealing to children. As far as the content of the three ads was concerned, m88.com shared that the content presented was unlikely to attract young individuals and encourage them to gamble.
ASA Investigation and Ruling
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) welcomed the interim action taken by the online gambling operator in response to the complaint filed against its games promotion.
Despite the fact that the three games in question were no longer available for demo mode play at the time when the regulatory body investigated on the complaint, the ads appeared on unrestricted parts of the m88.com website.
Apart from that, the first game – “Fairytale Legends Red Riding Hood” – was based on the Little Red Riding Hood fairy tale, which is one of the most popular fairy tales amongst children. The UK advertising regulatory body also found that the images used in the three games’ ads were likely to attract under-18s individuals, and particularly children, as the images resembled other characters from TV programmes and animated films.
The ASA further noted that the other game, “Fairytale Legends Hansel and Gretel”, is also based on a fairy tale which is highly popular amongst young children. This is why the regulator concluded that the ad was likely to be found attractive by young individuals and encourage them to gamble.
The results of the investigation helped the ASA conclude that the three games’ ads violated CAP Code rules 16.1, 16.3 and 16.3.12 related to gambling. The UK advertising regulatory body ruled that the ads must not appear in their current form anymore. The Authority also told m88.com to make sure that their gambling promotions are not designed in a way that could have particular appeal to children.
- Author
Olivia Cole
