Casino Classic advert "misleading", says ASA
Advertising Standards Authority raps Malta-based operator over affiliate email promotion that omitted key details of a £500 free bonus promotion
Apollo Entertainment subsidiary Casino Classic has been reprimanded by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) over a “misleading” email promotion it ran for its online casino site casinoclassic.co.uk.
The email offered players £500 “totally free” and stated “whatever you win in your first 60 minutes is yours to keep! No risk and no tricks” with a link to terms and conditions displayed in small print.
One complainant challenged whether the ad was misleading because the T&Cs failed to state that players were required to make a deposit in order to receive any winnings from the offer and meet certain staking requirements before being allowed to withdraw.
In its response, Casino Classic said the advert had been sent out by a third party affiliate who had failed to include the terms and conditions of the offer in the ad.
Casino Classic acknowledged that additional terms and conditions should have been included, such as players would need to place 20 or more bets and win £20 over the original £500 to cash out.
Players would also be required to deposit a minimum of £20 into their account in order to claim the winnings, and the maximum win was £100.
But the firm said the term “no risk” was accurate because the player would not be required to make a cash deposit in order to receive the £500 worth of free casino credit.
In its ruling the ASA said that the “primary responsibility” of adhering to the code was with Casino Classic and not the third party affiliate.
The watchdog said wording in the ad implied players would receive credits worth £500 in value and claim any winnings made during the 60 minutes “without significant restrictions”, such as the requirement to place a certain number of bets.
The ASA also said the wording “no deposit required” would give the impressing that players were “not required to place at deposit at any stage of the process”.
“We therefore consider the limitations and the requirements of the offer were contrary to customers’ likely interpretation of how the offer operated based on the information presented in the ad,” the ASA said in its ruling.
“We further considered that these limitations were significant conditions that were likely to influence consumers’ understanding of the offer and their decision whether or not to take up the offer and therefore should have been specified in the ad,” the ASA added.
The ASA told Casino Classic it must not run the advert again in its current form.