UK gambling affiliate site dinged for paid search advert
An advert for a casino comparison site appeared in a search for “help with gambling”, the ASA says.
Key takeaways:
- The ASA has upheld a complaint against gambling affiliate Smart Gravity after an ad for its casino comparison site appeared in search results for “help with gambling”
- The watchdog ruled that it breached advertising rules on social responsibility.
- It said safeguards in place, including negative keyword lists and compliance monitoring, were not robust enough because the company used broad keyword-matching options that created a risk of ads being shown to people searching for other terms
UK.- The UK Advertising Standards Authority has upheld a complaint against gambling affiliate provider Smart Gravity. A member of the public had complained that an advert for its website top10onlinecasinoreviews.co.uk offering “Fast Signups and Mega Bonuses” appeared when searching for gambling support.
The company denied having any intention or commercial interest in advertising to vulnerable people or those seeking addiction support. However, the ASA ruled that the advert breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rule 1.3 on social responsibility.
The paid-for search ad was seen on June 18 following an online search for “help with gambling”. Text stated: “UK’s Top 10 Casino Sites – 10 Best Casino Online Sites UK […] Compare The Best Online Slots Sites In The UK 2026. Fast Signups & Mega Bonuses To Claim. The Only Casino List Compiled Of Real Users Ratings! Signup & Enjoy Our Brilliant Offers”.
Smart Gravity’s site provides casino comparison content, reviews, and information relating to operators licensed by the British Gambling Commission. It told the ASA that it believed the ad in question had been served by Microsoft Advertising. After the complaint, it initiated an internal investigation to understand how the ad was served, which included reviewing its campaign settings, keyword targeting, search-term data, and compliance procedures to determine whether any additional safeguards were appropriate.
The affiliate company said its campaigns were configured to target adult users in the UK, using the targeting controls available within the advertising platform. It maintained an ongoing compliance framework to minimise the likelihood that its ads would appear alongside inappropriate search queries, which included periodic reviews of campaign settings and targeting, continuous review of negative keyword exclusions, and internal compliance monitoring, it said.
Broad keyword matching deemed to be a problem
The company said the intended audience consisted of adults seeking information regarding licensed gambling operators. It provided its negative keyword list, which was designed to exclude its ads from appearing in results for searches relating to gambling addiction, safer gambling, and topics related to gambling harm. It added that while automated systems could not guarantee that every possible keyword match would be prevented, it continuously reviewed controls to reduce that risk as far as practicable.
Smart Gravity said its advertising strategy used a combination of Exact Match, Phrase Match, and Broad Match keywords. It had not identified any search queries containing the phrase “help with gambling” that had been matched to the keywords they used.
However, the ASA concluded that the advert was inappropriate in the context and that the company should have avoided use of broader keyword matching options.
It said: “We acknowledged that Smart Gravity Ltd operated a negative keyword list intended to exclude its ads from appearing in response to searches related to gambling addiction, safer gambling and gambling harm. However, we understood that it used a mix of broader keyword matching options, some of which meant its ads could be displayed when a consumer searched for terms which related to, but did not contain, keywords that were targeted by the advertiser. We considered that the use of broader keyword-matching options meant there was a risk that the ad would be served in response to searches indicating that a consumer might be experiencing gambling-related harm.
“In those circumstances, the advertiser’s negative keyword list and targeting controls had not provided a sufficiently robust safeguard against the ad being shown to potentially vulnerable consumers. Because we considered that there was a strong likelihood that vulnerable consumers seeking to reduce their exposure to and engagement with gambling ads and websites had been served an ad promoting casino websites following a search for “help with gambling”, we concluded that the ad had not been responsibly targeted.”
The ASA ruled that the ad must not be served following the search “help with gambling” again.
