Committee of Advertising Practice issues advertising guidance
Regulatory body clarifies rules regarding gambling ads and urges operators to take "all reasonable steps" to ensure children are not targeted
The UK Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) has issued guidance on targeted gambling adverts and urged operators to take “all reasonable steps” to ensure ads are not directed at children.
In a note issued this week, the regulatory body discussed targeted adverts presented to consumers via email, social media and print advertising that had previously been subject to scrutiny by the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA).
CAP discussed several individual cases in which operators had either been referred to or found guilty of a breach of the advertising code by the ASA and clarified controls operators need in place in order to ensure advertising remains compliant.
It highlighted a case in which the now defunct sports betting operator BetButler had inadvertently emailed sign-up offers to an email address belonging to a 10-year old and discussed several cases in which gambling adverts had appeared on social networking sites Facebook and YouTube.
CAP stressed the importance of ensuring all social media posts were sent with age restrictions to prevent them from being seen by users under the age of 18, and that YouTube videos hosted by accounts belonging to bookmakers were not scheduled to play elsewhere on the video sharing site.
Ladbrokes recently called upon YouTube to confirm it had received no complaints regarding videos hosted on its YouTube channel and that videos were not targeted to under 18s when it was forced to defend its Ladbrokes Life marketing campaign in September.
The committee also warned against the use of characters that were likely to appeal to children within print advertising campaigns, citing an advert for an online casino which appeared in the Metro newspaper that included a Transformers character.
“The key is to consider who your audience is likely to be and take action where necessary to ensure that your advertising is correctly targeted,” Daniel Ware, CAP compliance executive, said.