On 1st March 2011 the Advertising Standards Authority’s (ASA)remit changed to allow them ‘to cover companies’ own marketing claims on their own websites and in other non-paid for space they control’ and an internet bingo brand appears to be one of the first to fall foul of this new remit. The ASA upheld a complaint against Sing Bingo after just one person complained about their Debt Free 2011 promotion. The team at BallsUp covered this promotion in a piece entitled ‘Sing Bingo get it wrong‘
It would appear that the complainant held a similar view to those exoressed by myself when first coming across the promotion and the ASA agreed.
The complaint received by the ASA was two fold:
- was irresponsible as it appeared to encourage players to gamble as a means to becoming “Debt Free”
- was misleading as the prize on offer was unlikely to make anyone “Debt Free”
Both points were raised in our article about the promotion.
For Sing Bingo this means that the promotion can not be shown in it’s previous format. For the world of internet bingo it means that brands need to think a little harder before wording their promotional material because when push comes to shove, the offer from Sing Bingo wasn’t a bad one, you could have won £2,400 for just one pence and that’s a bargain.
Sing Bingo focuses on games on a budget which makes this a brand that works for many players. So if you want cheap as chips games, this is definitely a site worth visiting!
