Animated slots, fibbing tipsters earn UK ad watchdog’s wrath

The UK’s advertising watchdog has fingered online gambling operator Coral for offering casino games that could appeal to kids.

On Tuesday, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) upheld a trio of complaints regarding Coral Interactive’s promotion of slots titles that a complainant (presumably the Campaign for Fairer Gambling) alleged were “likely to be of particular appeal to children.”

The three products were promoted on the Coral.co.uk site on February 20. The offending slots were titled Rainbow Riches, Fishin’ Frenzy and Lucky Wizard, and featured animated images of leprechauns, swimming fish and wizards, respectively.

Coral, now part of GVC Holdings’ family of gambling brands, argued that the animated figures weren’t excessively cartoonish, didn’t specifically resemble characters from any animated films and generally weren’t over the top. As a result, Coral maintains that there was no indication that the images would have more appeal for children than for over-18s.