Online Casino in Trouble for Ad

The online casino Ladbrokes is in trouble for a recent ad that they ran. They had two ads run for their online casino ladbrokescasino.com where they showed thrill seeking characters leaping to their deaths. The Advertising Standards Authority, or ASA, now says that the ads were completely inappropriate.

According to the ASA the ads broke advertising rules and “portrayed gambling in a context of toughness, and linked it to excessive risk taking and reckless behavior.” They said that by showing these ads on the television the online casino broke the rules that pertain to advertising as to what is considered acceptable and what is not.

For their part, the online casino basically says that the ASA needs to learn how to take a joke. They say that they are seeking an overturning of the ruling and they think that this has all been an overreaction to what was simply a funny ad. They think the regulator needs to learn how to laugh.

The two advertisements in question end in a similar manner where the “thrill seeker” leaps to their death. In one it is a diver taking more and more extreme risks until he finally jumps into shark infested waters in a seal costume, with raw bacon and sausages tied to him. The second is a sky diver who jumps from a plane trying to use a crisp packet as his parachute. Both end with the tag line, "If only he'd seen ladbrokescasino.com it would have quenched his thrill buds."

Allegedly the ASA received one complaint about the ads.