ASA bans ad for Starburst slot game

The advertising authority received a complaint for the ad on karamba.com and decided to ban it.

UK.- The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has reported that an ad for the Starburst slot game on karamba.com has been banned after a complaint challenged that the ad implied that certain strategies would increase the chances of winning.

The ad is titled “Tips and tricks on how to win at Starburst,” which outlines a strategy to win on the slots. The ad claimed that “wins at the minimum bet rate are much less frequent and pay out significantly smaller sums,” and suggested ways to get “on the winning track” and trigger bonus features and therefore more wins.

ASA said that the ad was implying that certain strategies would change the course of the game and increase chances of winning and that it was irresponsible as it “encouraged gambling behaviour that could lead to financial, social or emotional harm.”

AG Communications, the operator of karamba.com, said that the ads that were uploaded to the website were the product of a human error and that they hadn’t gone through usual procedures for approvals to see if they complied with regulations.

“The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told Karamba.com to ensure their future marketing communications contained nothing that was likely to encourage irresponsible gambling behaviour that could lead to financial, social or emotional harm,” ruled ASA.