Online casinos in the UK could face a crackdown on exploiting the superstitions of local gamblers after the country’s advertising regulatory body rolled out an investigation into a gambling company’s claims regarding certain games being “hot” or “cold”.
As revealed by The Guardian, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) s likely to back a complaint lodged against PlayOJO 7 months ago. According to the complaint, in 2021, the gambling operator promoted a feature that provided customers with a unique chance to see the games on winning streaks. At the time, PlayOJO’s gambling platform informed players that switching between “hot” and “cold” would reveal the most and least profitable games of the hour.
The online casino company, which is owned by Skill On Net Ltd and operates under a licence issued by the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC), suggested that players could either choose to play what it described as “hot” games to check whether they were still paying out or choose the “cold” games and try to change the luck and make them start paying out.
At the time of the publication, the advertising material was no longer available on the PlayOJO online gambling platform. The feature was also promoted by TV ads in which a tarot card reader gave her customer advice while informing her predictions on the PlayOJO mobile phone application. The online gambling operator noted that it had not been specifically requested to remove the page offering the “hot” and “cold” feature from its website. However, PlayOJO revealed that it was in the process of making certain adjustments to some marketing materials, which was why the pages had been no longer available on the website but noted they would be replaced soon.
ASA Could Find the Promotion of “Hot” and “Cold” Feature Was Irresponsible and Misleading
The Advertising Standards Authority has still not made a final decision on the matter but The Guardian managed to see a draft version of the recommendation and revealed that it will uphold a complaint that the feature’s promotion was irresponsible and misleading.
If confirmed, such a ruling will have an effect on whether the so-called “gambler’s fallacy” – the false impression that previous outcomes of a certain game would have affected the following outcomes – could be exploited by gambling companies. Although this strategy is rarely a winning one, casino players still count on the gambler’s fallacy to decide whether or not to take part in a certain game. Many gamblers often use it to calculate the odds of a certain outcome in the game of roulette.
As The Guardian reported, the draft ruling of the UK advertising regulatory body warned that the marketing used by PlayOJO actually contained elements suggesting that online casino players could actually exert control over the outcomes of the game and even fuelling such a wrongful impression by encouraging them to play with slogans such “choose your destiny”.
This is not the first time when a gambling company in the UK is being criticised for advertising “hot” and “cold” features. Local bookmakers have been notorious for promoting such numbers on their fixed-odds betting machines (FOBTs). However, the draft ruling of the ASA against PlayOJO is believed to be the first time when a British regulator has targeted specifically the feature, with potential effects for the wider gambling sector.
- Author
Olivia Cole
