Gambling Commission Scores an Own Goal with World Cup Tweet

Safer gambling is one of the Gambling Commission’s hot topics, with anti-gambling factions within the local political scene looking for any infraction to pounce upon. One of the more recent discussion points has been the influence of the lockdowns, celebrity gambling endorsements and sporting event advertising on British youth.

Given the intensive scrutiny the entire online gambling industry faces in the UK, it was a  face-palm moment when it turned out to be the gambling regulator itself, which tripped up over the “gambling is for 18+” rule that it so strictly enforces with its licensees.

A Picture is Worth a 1000 Words

The UKGC has been unwavering, to the point of absurdity, on its stance that no imagery, game titles or other factors contain anything that might be considered attractive to people not old enough to gamble legally.

To the extent that a brand like Royal Panda dropped its titular animated panda mascot from its UK-facing ads campaigns and marketing material. The  Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) even had online slots based on Little Red Riding Hood and other classic fairy tales removed from casino advertising as they were deemed to “enhance appeal to under-18s”.

Naturally, this limitation on display media also extended to youth use in advertising. However, on December 9th, as part of their World Cup gambling campaign, the Authority tweeted an image promoting licensed gambling sites – featuring a youthful fan decked out in their team's colours. They clearly violated their licensing requirements and a massive safer gambling faux pas.

 Too Little Too Late?

Despite taking action to rectify the situation, the original Tweet was seen by more than 22,000 social media users, as it was live all weekend. The regulator has subsequently removed the post from its official account and replaced it with this Tweet:

The Authority included this apology to attempt to smooth things over:

“We realise this was an oversight and undermined an important consumer protection message. We apologise to anyone who may have been offended by unintended association and have now deleted the tweet.”

What has left a sour taste in the mouth of certain operators is that the Gambling Commission has shown little mercy to any licensees who fell afoul of the same issue. Earlier this year, Betway was fined more than €475,000 for having their logo appear on a site offering a downloadable colouring-in picture of a teddy bear.

The gambling public is on the side of the operators in this instance, with the apology receiving 19 Quote Retweets (a resharing of the message with a comment by the user), with all of them criticising the Authority and several asking, "What fine did you pay?" or something similar in tone and intent.