The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has thrown out a complaint made against Betfred’s latest TV ad, by a single individual.The complainant raised the issue after the ad, which featured people gambling while doing household chores, depicted gambling as a normal activity. In the ad we see a woman in the bath, a man making a meal and a woman exercising all of which are playing bingo on their mobile or tablet devices.
Not Normalising Gambling
Betfred defended the ad by saying the characters did not in any way normalise gambling, or for players to priorities playing bingo over everyday activities. It was simply implying you could play bingo for fun in your leisure time. Betfred go on to say,“ Gambling wasn’t portrayed as indispensable or favourable over social time with loved ones.”The ASA statement read, “ The ad focused on how people could gamble while using Betfred Bingo while also undertaking tasks and leisure activities around the house. The characters taking a bath and exercising were shown playing bingo in conjunction with doing those tasks, rather than instead of them. Gambling was therefore not portrayed as taking priority over those tasks or as indispensable.“ During the section showing the character preparing a meal, he was seen throwing food in the air when he realised he had won a prize. While we consider the character’s exaggerated reaction to winning showed he was briefly distracted from his task, again we did not consider that this scene portrayed gambling as taking priority in life.“ We concluded that the ad did not portray, condone or encourage gambling behaviour that was socially irresponsible, or portray gambling as indispensable or as taking priority in life.”