Highly Questionable Online Advertising
The Advertising Standards Authority in the UK is one of the few organizations of
its kind in the online casino gambling industry throughout the world. This is
actually a bit of a oversight by some governments because the ASA is an integral
part of ensuring that the online casinos and internet gambling companies are
operating with the best interests of the gamblers in their minds. Oversights
occur when there is no clear organization stopping the gambling companies from
questionable gambling practices and adverse advertising campaigns. The latest
issue comes from Better Bet and the company’s decision to use Paul Merson as the
spokesperson for the company despite Merson’s very public gambling addiction
problems in past years.
Merson is a former major footballer who achieved major recognition throughout
his career with Arsenal and Aston Villa. The one major problem that has come out
of Merson’s career is the publicity about Merson’s gambling addiction that made
headlines. Despite this addiction though, Merson was chosen by an online betting
and gambling company as a spokesperson for the brand. It makes one ask “where is
the common sense?” Merson’s gambling problem was very public knowledge and
despite an initial public acceptance of his spokesperson status at Better Bet,
the issue finally came up and many online casino gamblers and bettors gave an
outcry, noting that the use of Merson trivialized the serious nature of problem
and addictive gambling.
As the public outcry worsened Better Bet pulled a planned advertising campaign
that was to feature Merson and actually fired him as the spokesperson. Better
Bet has rethought their initial use of Merson to promote gambling in general and
instead have announced that they are in the works on an anti-gambling campaign
with the former footballer. |