The Advertising Standards Authority has banned multiple advertisements from social casino apps for misleading players and implying they could win real-world money or tangible prizes.
Each of the adverts appeared as paid-for TikTok ads for the following five companies:
The ASA noted that each company’s advert implied that their games were gambling products where real-world money or tangible prizes could be won and withdrawn and therefore were misleading.
Slot gameplay imagery within the adverts was spotlighted by the ASA, such as a casino slot machine and graphics being visible within Huuuge Global’s Billionaire Casino adverts, a roulette-style wheel and slot machine in SpinX Games’ adverts, as well as gameplay footage similar to that of casino-based slot games in Dataverse Co Gamehaus’ adverts.
Verbiage within the adverts themselves was also highlighted by the authority, such as the terms “hitting the jackpot” and “payout” within Zeroo Gravity Games’ Cash Tornado advert and “super-high odds” and “jackpot” in Mobee’s Ignite Classic Slots advert, as associated with gambling and therefore could be misinterpreted as such by players.
Each of the five listed companies was deemed to have breached rules 3.1 and 3.3 of the UK Code of Non-broadcast Advertising and Direct & Promotional Marketing with their advertisements. CAP Code 3.1 states: “Marketing communications must not materially mislead or be likely to do so”.
Meanwhile, CAP Code 3.3 reads: “Marketing communications must not mislead the consumer by omitting material information. They must not mislead by hiding material information or presenting it in an unclear, unintelligible, ambiguous or untimely manner.
“Material information is information that the consumer needs to make informed decisions in relation to a product. Whether the omission or presentation of material information is likely to mislead the consumer depends on the context, the medium and, if the medium of the marketing communication is constrained by time or space, the measures that the marketer takes to make that information available to the consumer by other means”.
In addition, Mobee Co’s “lack of response and apparent disregard for the Code” was deemed a breach of CAP Code 1.7, which states that: “any unreasonable delay in responding to the ASA’s enquiries will normally be considered a breach of the Code”.
The ASA told each of the five companies in question that the adverts must not appear again and that they must ensure that they did not imply consumers could win real-world money or tangible prizes.
The rulings against the five social casinos are part of a wider work by the ASA on paid-for gambling-like ads.
An ASA spokesperson said: “We understood that social casino apps emulate slot machines or other casino-based games, but that people couldn’t win or withdraw any real-world money. But all of these ads failed to make clear that this was the case, giving people a misleading impression.
“These rulings form part of a wider piece of work on paid-for gambling-like ads, identified for investigation following intelligence we’ve gathered. The rules are clear, these ads shouldn’t mislead consumers by creating the impression that they can win real-world prizes if this isn’t the case.”
