ASA bashes online operators for irresponsible adverts by Affiliate

The UK Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) that regulates advertising in the UK has said that adverts made by an affiliate of customers such as of 888, Sky Vegas and Ladbrokes Casino are deemed the adverts irresponsible for portraying gambling as a way of relieving stress, depression and a way of helping with financial worries.

In total nine complaints were received by the ASA and all were upheld by the regulator and warned the operators that the adverts must be cancelled immediately.

The affiliate in question did not ask for approval to the operators prior to releasing the advert and the operators were unaware of the content prior to release. Following the ASA decision the operators have all cancelled their working agreement with the said affiliate.

In response to upholding the complaint the ASA said: “The ad must not appear again in its current form”, adding that each company’s “future ads, including those prepared by affiliates, must be clearly identifiable as marketing communications and to take care to ensure their ads were prepared in a socially responsible way.”

Following the decision previously by Sky Betting & Gaming to close its affiliate hub business some observers within the industry now question the future of the affiliate industry in the long term with online operators. One insider who works within the affiliate sector said that they believe the future of affiliates will again be brought back into the operators business and not outsourced.