Online Casino Advertising Gets Criticized

It seems that advertising at online casinos, which offer incentives to online casino players, is strictly prohibited, according to Tessa Jowell, the UK Culture Secretary. All of the commercial advertising seen on taxis and subway walls are not only promotions and ads for online casino sites; they are also graphic evidence pointing to a violation of the law.

Although many of the online casino sites and advertisers creating and publishing these ads are allowed to do so because they operate offshore, the fact that they take bets from UK gamblers forces them to fall under the UK laws of legal advertising. This means they are not permitted to offer inducements to online casino players, such as advertising free entry into poker tournaments or indicating the value of the prize that might be won.

‘It’s clear that some adverts have been breaking the law,’ said Jowell. ‘I am not willing to turn a blind eye to this and have agreed with the Gambling Commission that we should crack down on advertisers and publishers who knowingly break the law.’ The department of culture, media and sport and the Gambling Commission, the industry’s regulator, will join forces and write a formal letter to advertisers, publishers and online casino operators specifying the government’s position on its interpretation of the law. The Gambling Commission will also state in the letter that it will recommend prosecution to the Crown Prosecution Service if online casino advertisers and publishers are caught breaking the law.