Online casino charged with targeting problem gamblers with advertisement

[The Buzz]

Online casino Casumo has been forced to take down an online ad that offered free spins and bonuses to people who Googled ways to bar themselves from gambling.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) upheld a complaint that claimed that after searching for “How to unsubscribe from all gambling,” only an ad for the Casumo app appeared.

Casumo has previously paid penalties of £5.85 million for failures in systems designed to protect problem gamblers.

From The Guardian:

The advert, in the paid-for listings that appear above organically generated search results, was headed: “Welcome bonus to new players Casumo 100% and 20 free spins,” and also invited people to “create an account & play now!”

Casumo told the ASA it had systems in place to stop its adverts appearing when certain search terms were used, to avoid fuelling problem gambling.

But the company said it had not included “unsubscribe” within those terms because it felt it was associated with customers wanting to be removed from mailing lists or marketing, rather than trying to block themselves from gambling.

The ASA said: “We acknowledged that on receipt of the complaint Casumo had immediately taken action to address where their ads were served. “However, because we considered there was a strong possibility that vulnerable consumers seeking to prevent exposure to gambling ads and access to gambling websites might have been served a gambling ad following a search for ‘how to unsubscribe from all gambling’, we concluded that the ad had not been responsibly targeted.”

Read more here: https://www.theguardian.com/society/...-stop-gambling

[universal4]

This is bothersome to a degree.

If they in fact targeted “How to unsubscribe from all gambling,”, then I see the complaint as valid.

But if they had a page that ranked with a statement “How to unsubscribe from all gambling mailing lists,” then I think they have a case that they were not targeting problem gamblers (at least in this scenario)

Rick
Universal4

[Klusionz]

I agree that this is not okay.

But it would be nice to know the url in question, and if it is as you say, an article on how to bar themselves from compulsive gambling. For example: If they get fined for having a top list in the sidebar on the same page as the article, its very strict, as those are sitewide and often hardcoded.

A bit surprised if they did this intentinalluy as my impression of Casumo is guite good

[Alexyeah]

I think the subject is directed toward Google ads and not SEO ranking. But then I guess the question is if "unsubscribe" still isn't part of a "problem gambling" batch of keywords.