An online casino add has garnered quite a bit of attention for it’s content and for the fact that it had to be banned by the ASA, The Advertising Standards Authority.

The ASA, a British government entity who monitors online casino adverts and gambling sites have ordered a withdrawal of online casino Requestabet.com’s ad which compares online gambling to things like investments in stock or real estate, according to several media sources.

The issue around this specific ad is that it depicts gambling as a viable alternative to other forms of financial investments. The ASA has said that these ads are not accurately portraying gambling for what it really is, instead suggesting it is another way to pad your savings accounts.

Media analyst Howard Bunker says that these adds should be seen more as tongue-in-cheek and not for the realism some are claiming they are trying to portray. Bunker says that the advertisement is not actually saying gambling is a great way to get your hands on more money but is in fact illustrating the irony in believing that other forms of investment are safer. Bunker also noted the ASA is missing the obvious humour of the advertisements.

Many are agreeing that advertisements need to be judged in the proper context and that if ads are humorous in nature that their preposterous claims should not be taken seriously. This is also not the first time the ASA has ran into similar issues. Prior to this issue, the ASA had ordered Ladbrokes’ ad to be removed from the airways when they compared the thrills of dangerous activities like swimming with sharks to online gambling.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 27th, 2009 at 1:57 pm and is filed under online casino news. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.