“Suggestive” 888 Poker Ad Banned By British Authorities

One of the most popular online poker rooms in Europe has seen its latest ad put on the banned list by the United Kingdom’s arbiter of advertising.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), the independent organization that approves advertisements for a variety of British media, decided that an advertisement put out by 888 Poker in 2011 cannot be broadcast anymore on British television. The ASA received a complaint about the ad last year, which promotes the PokerCam innovation on 888 Poker, and reviewed the case. After deliberation, the ASA made the determination that the ad violated standards set by the organization in that it made a connection between gambling, seduction and sexual prowess.

The advertisement seems innocent enough, with a man sitting down at his computer and turning on his webcam to play online poker. A voice states, “You never know who you might meet at a PokerCam table,” then shows various opponents, including a group of women and one woman in a bikini who seems to be playing beside a pool scene.

The ASA decided that the ad violated standards because of the voiceover and that the ad was particularly “flirtatious and seductive.” Because of the alleged linking of seduction and gambling, the ASA felt that 888 Poker had breached their Code of Advertising Practices, which governs advertisements on television and the internet, among other media outlets.

888 Poker, for its part, vehemently objected that the ad wasn’t linking seduction and gambling but showing that the site was an innovative, exciting place to play. As far as the women involved in the ad, 888 Poker felt that any involvement between the players was on a “platonic” level. 888 Poker was supported by a independent United Kingdom advertising vetting organization, Clearcast, who agreed with 888 Poker that the ad simply showed different people in different areas and the advantages of playing online poker with a webcam.

The ASA has an active history in banning certain ads for online poker organizations for a variety of reasons. In 2009, the ASA rejected a magazine ad from PartyPoker that had a simple tagline that promoted, “Players win more at PartyPoker.” The ASA rejected this ad because it allegedly implied that people who played on PartyPoker would win more money than playing at other sites.

Later in 2009, the ASA dropped its regulatory hammer on an e-mail advertisement sent out by Betfair Poker featuring former World Series of Poker Europe champion Annette Obrestad. The advertisement contained a picture of Obrestad and the tagline, “Online experience is measured in games, not years. Join the new breed…Annette_15.” (“Annette_15” was, as many know, Obrestad’s online moniker at that time.)

The ASA felt that the Betfair advertisement encouraged underage people to play poker online. On another point, the ASA did have a reason to issue the ban, as people in a gambling ad in the United Kingdom have to be at least 25 years old; at the time, Obrestad was only twenty.

In recent years, the ASA has also banned ads across a wide spectrum of media and from a wide variety of sources. Such online gaming outlets as Red Cherry Poker, PaddyPowerPoker, PKR, William Hill and Bet365 have had advertisements that have endured the wrath of the British regulatory organization for a multitude of reasons. In many of these cases, all it took for the ASA to cast its scrutiny was a single complaint by a citizen.

The ban by the ASA is effective immediately, but 888 Poker has the option of revising the ad and submitting it again to the regulatory board for review. It is not known at this time if 888 Poker will revise the ad or drop the campaign.