ADVERTISING
Gambling advertising with appeal to children
Luis Louro/Adobe Stock
Since 2007 gambling ads that have ‘particular appeal’ to children and/or young people (under-18s) have been likely to break the CAP Code if they are generally available to view by them (‘freely accessible’). Here is some guidance to help gambling operators advertise responsibly.
Brian Jackson/Adobe Stock
What do we mean by ‘ads’ – does this include websites? The CAP Code applies to advertising in a wide range of media, including on a company’s own website or in other non-paid-for space online under their control where the content is directly connected with the supply of goods, services, opportunities or gifts.
Halfpoint/Adobe Stock
This means that, in addition to things like paid-for ads in third party space and e-mail/ direct marketing, images and text on a gambling operator’s own website (or social media) that are ‘directly connected’ to their gambling products or other services will be considered ‘ads’ by the ASA. This includes game thumbnails, screenshots and logos as well as the names and descriptions of games. The actual gambling products/games themselves are unlikely, in the vast majority of cases, to fall within the scope of the CAP Code because they are products. However, there may be some elements or indeed ads for other products within these games that will be covered by the Code.
Africa Studio/Adobe Stock 54 DECEMBER 2017
What do we mean by ‘freely accessible’? Ads are ‘freely accessible’ if they can be viewed by an audience that does not effectively exclude
under-18s. On a marketer’s own website, this means that if someone can view the advertising content without having to log in and verify their identity, it is likely to be considered ‘freely accessible’. As best practice, we would recommend entering credit card details as likely to be a sufficiently robust age verification check method. Without these checks, children and young people could potentially view the ad because there is nothing to prevent them from doing so. Simply ticking a box stating you are 18+ is unlikely to be considered sufficient to exclude under-18s from the audience and so where this method is used to restrict the audience, the ads are likely to still be considered ‘freely accessible’.
What do we mean by particular appeal? Content that is likely to appeal more strongly to under-18s than to those aged 18 and over has particular appeal to children and/or young persons. If the content is likely to appeal to both under-18s and adults equally, or more so to adults, then it is unlikely to be considered problematic. Marketers therefore need to take care with the imagery and wording used in their ads for gambling products or games. Colourful and
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