The United Kingdom’s Advertising Standards Authority have issued a ruling against MT SecureTrade Limited, owners and operators of multiple online casinos, upholding a complaint against them. The complaint concerns an advertisement on a gaming app for Dunder Casino titled “Looney Tunes World of Mayhem” whereby said app according to the ASA appealed to minors.
The advertisement in question featured the following text: “Deposit £20 at Dunder and get 200 Free Spins. 1. Open an account at Dunder. 2. Deposit £20. 3. Enjoy your Welcome Offer”. Smaller text stated “*New Customers only. **Players must be 18+”. Beneath this was a button that stated “Earn [gem emoji] 3360”
The ASA gave the following clarification as to why they upheld the complaint against Dunder Casino and their owners MT SecureTrade Limited: “The ad appeared in the app “Looney Tunes World of Mayhem”, which had a rating of PEGI 7 in the UK Google Play app store, meaning it was suitable for players aged 7 and up. The game allowed players to build worlds and situations based on the Looney Tunes cartoons and collect characters to “battle” each other.”
“Given the use of cartoon characters, cartoonish violence and the relatively simple nature of the game, we considered it was likely to appeal to many under-18s. However, we acknowledged that the characters would be well-known to older players, and the game was likely to have more general appeal.”
“We understood that the ad had been labelled as “mature-gambling”, and therefore should only have appeared in apps that had specifically opted in to receive “mature-gambling” content. According to Tapjoy, “Looney Tunes World of Mayhem” had been marked to display “mature-gambling” ads in error. We acknowledged that action had been taken to correct this promptly, following receipt of the complaint.”
As a result the advertisement has been pulled and MT SecureTrade have cancelled all ties with the US Based affiliate who was responsible for running the advertisement
