U.S. anti-online gambling group tries a new attack
News on 5 Apr 2018
News on 5 Apr 2018
The importance of properly thought-through online gambling advertising has been underlined once more – this time in the United States – where the Coalition to Stop Internet Gambling has come forward with a new line of attack…picking through advertisements in an attempt to cast the industry as preying on the under-aged and problem gamblers.
The anti-online gambling group, largely funded by land gambling magnate Sheldon Adelson, has enjoyed little success in its campaigning for an outright Congressional ban on online gambling and its attempts to adapt the 1961 Wire Act to include the genre, and appears to have developed a new line of attack.
Point person for the strategy appears to be former Democratic Senator Blanche Lincoln, long a face for the CSIG, who has been trying to generate media coverage on advertising by online gambling firms which she claims targets children, senior citizens, and problem gamblers.
The CSIG allege that gambling ads were displayed on children’s game sites, such as GirlsGoGames.com, with others appearing on diverse website pages, and claims that they are reminiscent of the days when tobacco advertisements had free rein before being strictly regulated.
Lincoln has been quoted as saying: “You used to have the Marlboro man, you used to have those ads. Congress in its wisdom and some in the industry determined it was not appropriate. The advertising part of it is exactly what hooks kids and seniors who are desperate, who are marginalized individuals and trying to feed a family.”
Her claims do not appear to be properly substantiated (not unusual in CSIG tactics) and exhibit a remarkable lack of understanding of how online gambling advertising actually works.
Operators have over the past two years or more been given ample warning that there is now close scrutiny of inappropriate advertising, with some companies facing hefty fines and damage to reputation. There is therefore a realisation that greater care is required in the design and presentation of advertisements, quite apart from a moral obligation to avoid targeting, attracting or registering accounts from vulnerable community groups.
