Watchdogs are on high alert for anything that could be considered promoting unhealthy gambling behaviour, and rightly so, but I’m struggling a bit with this one, and I’m a supporter of sensible regulation.<\/p>\n
The ad in question concerns the promotion of PaddyPower’s Wonder Wheel; a free to play wheel spin game in which players get 1 spin per day, and can win cash, freespins, free scratchcards, etc.<\/p>\n
Why Was the Ad Banned?<\/h2>\n
![\"ASA](\"https:\/\/www.newbettingsites.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/asa-logo-750px.jpg\"){kind=logo}
You might well have seen the advert in question.<\/p>\n
It’s the one with the young couple visiting the female’s parents house, and the male is playing PaddyPower’s Wonder Wheel game.<\/p>\n
The female asks her fella, “Do you think i’ll end up looking like my Mum?”, but the guy is only half listening and says “I hope so”.<\/p>\n
Awkward looks all round, then he wins the top prize of \u00a3100.<\/p>\n
Narrator: “No matter how badly you stuff it up, you’ll always get another chance with Paddy Power Games.”<\/p>\n
Well that little scene has been deemed ‘irresponsible’ for promoting repetitive gambling apparently – despite the fact the game in question is free to play so isn’t actually gambling at all…<\/p>\n
The main issue though was the fact that the man was distracted by the game. According to the ASA this was considered to qualify as having:<\/p>\n
“portrayed gambling as taking priority in life, over family”.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Had the man been momentarily distracted by the footy instead, then hit the spin button after he made the comment, I assume it wouldn’t have been an issue.<\/p>\n
That’s the sort of forensic detail we are talking about here.<\/p>\n
See what you think:<\/p>\n