Betfair Poker Rapped by ASA

Betfair Poker has been forced by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) to stop using an e-mail advertisement that has been deemed ‘irresponsible’. The advertisement featured a photograph of Annette Obrestad and the text: “Online experience is measured in games, not years. Join the new breed. Annette Obrestad – ‘Annette_15’” The ASA received one complaint about the advertisement, which said that it was irresponsible and might encourage children and young people to gamble.

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Betfair Poker rightly defended the advertisement, saying that they were not targeting anyone under the age of 18, and that the e-mail was sent to individuals who had previously registered their date of birth with another gambling organisation. They also said that Ms Obrestad was not featured in the advertisement because of her age (she is in fact 20 years old) but because of her standing as a poker professional.

Unfortunately there is a rule which states that no person under the age of 25 – or who simply seems to be under 25 – can be used in a gambling advertisement in the UK. So although Ms Obrestad is an adult and no doubt one of the best professional poker players around, she isn’t deemed suitable to advertise the online poker game that she plays so well.

In the end, the ASA chose to uphold the complaint and said that Betfair Poker must not use the advertisement again in its current form.

This isn’t the first time that the ASA has forced a respected company in the gambling industry to stop using certain advertisements. In January of this year a Ladbrokes Casino television advertisement was banned from our screens because it depicted cartoon-style non-gambling behaviour of a deliberately reckless nature. Again, in that case there was just one complaint.

Whilst we can go along with the idea that the advertising output of any industry might benefit from being monitored, we question whether the online gambling industry should be singled out for the application of what appear to be rather prejudiced rules. Yes, online gambling is risky. And no, minors should never be encouraged to get involved. But banning under 25s – or those who are lucky enough to appear younger than they are – from appearing in advertisements when the same rule doesn’t apply to other industries seems pretty unfair to us. After all, don’t lottery winners under the age of 25 get lots of publicity when they win a jackpot? And isn’t that a form of advertising?

The good news is that Betfair Poker won’t be affected by this decision in the big scheme of things, and the gaming action at the Betfair Poker site is as exciting and potentially profitable as ever.