Once again a company in the gambling industry has breached the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) rules. This month it was an email from National Lottery operator Camelot that had caused the complaint to be made by one of its recipients. The ad was challenged for implying that gambling was indispensable and encouraging excessive gambling., and therefore irresponsible.

Camelot Group responded to the complaint by saying the purpose of the campaign was to encourage recipients, in a light-hearted way, to consider playing the lottery through the interactive channels and did not imply that gambling was indispensable. The ad had been designed to stress some of the advantages of playing online, such as automated ticket checking and win notifications. The email had only been sent to clients who had not opted out of receiving marketing communications.

The ASA considered that Camelot had not implied gambling was indispensable although the ad suggested that a good excuse was needed not to play the lottery and provided recipients with humorous ones. However, the Authority decided that Camelot had breached CAP Code 2.2 on social responsibility. It noted that the ad focused on the benefits of playing the Lottery interactively and invited recipients to use their interactive account repeatedly by stating "The more you play the more likely you are to win".

The email suggested that recipients had a higher chance of winning if they bought multiple lines, across the numerous Lottery games on both the Wednesday and Saturday weekly draws, and the ASA concluded that, by referring to the greater chance of winning resulting from multiple entries, the ad encouraged repeated and potentially excessive gambling. Camelot has been told that the ad must not appear again in its current form. (E-09.03.09)

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