by Renee Israel
The advertising industry watchdog group, ASA (Advertising Standards
Authority), has ordered an online gambling site to pull a series of ads after
receiving a number of complaints about their content.
Prime Scratchcards was ordered to remove the ads from circulation, citing
"irresponsible" content that targeted vulnerable players and offered them a
solution from their financial woes.
An example of one of the ads shows a young mother holding a baby, with the
text reading: "I am a single mom and I live on family benefits. I played and won
£46,799 and it is incredible for me. I was very stressed for my son's future
and I couldn't sleep. Now that I won I know that I can help my son build a
better future."
A second ad had one woman, who had been made redundant, claim that she had
"decided to play a few games online" and won over £21,000.
A flurry of complaints led ASA to demand that the site remove the ads that
were running on sites such as Facebook, Yahoo and the Microsoft network.
The ads, according to ASA, "suggested gambling was a solution to financial
worries and encouraged gambling behaviour that could lead to financial and
emotional harm."
"We concluded that the ads were therefore irresponsible," said ASA.
The ads had been viewed over a billion times by the time ASA came onto the
picture.
The parent company of Prime Scratchcards, PrimeGaming, pulled the ads when
they first heard of the complaints, prior to ASA's ruling on the issue.
Prime Scratchcards offers UK players instant win games.
