AI gambling advert banned for appealing to children

The Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) had banned an advert that was published on X back in May. The AI-generated advert, by Midnite, was ruled to have a strong appeal to young people. 

This comes at a time when nearly 90% of children see gambling adverts online, exacerbating the concern around young people’s exposure to gambling. 

The advert

The advertisement featured an AI-generated version of a Real Madrid player, Trent Alexander-Arnold, delivering a fake farewell message to other Liverpool players. 

Despite Midnite claiming that this wasn’t promotional material and they weren’t using it to attract customers, the ad featured Midnite branding throughout. 

The ad also had a comment from Midnite’s social media, which included a GambleAware disclaimer and claims that the only purpose of this advert was to be an AI parody, not advertising. But was this enough? 

ASA ruling

The ASA received at least two complaints about this advert, which led to their investigation. 

During this investigation, they ruled that the advert broke the advertising standards rule, which prohibits gambling products from “reflecting or being associated with youth culture”. 

There are several things that the ASA suggests would make this advert appeal to children, these include:

• Using the likeness of a famous sports star who would be well-known by young people. 

• X as a platform uses self-verification age checks, meaning that companies can’t guarantee their ads won’t be seen by anyone under the age of 18. 

• Football is a sport in which “a very significant proportion of under-18s [participate] directly on a daily basis”. 

Midnite admits wrongdoing

As a result of this investigation, Midnite have admitted that using this particular football player came with a high risk of reaching children under the age of 18. 

However, they insisted that since the advert “did not contain any odds, inducements, calls to action, product references…” then it should not have been viewed as a tool to drive customers to their site. 

They also claimed that the use of their brand logo and watermark didn’t make it an advertisement. 

The ASA disagreed with these arguments, ruling that this advert “directly connected with the supply of betting services”. 

Recent changes 

The committee of advertising have recently changed their regulations around social media adverts for UK audiences.

The change means that regulations already in place now apply to non-paid-for online marketing spaces, such as social media platforms like X. 

The new rules are said to have “closed loopholes” for advertisers, as they can no longer get away with more casual adverts on social media. 

The response

Over a million people saw this ad during its time on the X site, prompting some people to claim this removal is too little too late. 

However, most people seem to be happy with the ASA’s actions on this matter, with one X user proud of this “Important discussion about child protection in advertising”. 

After the official ruling that Midnite had breached the CAP code on gambling, the advert was removed. 

The official statement by the ASA was:

“The ad must not appear again in the form complained of…Midnite not to include a person or character who had strong appeal to those under 18 years of age”. 

Further questions over gambling advertisements

The removal of this advert once again raises the question of whether gambling industry advertisements should be subjected to the same regulation as alcohol and tobacco are. 

Midnite is not the only company to get in trouble this year, suggesting that gambling companies aren’t focusing on protecting children, and perhaps stronger rules are needed.