Last week saw Posh Bingo under scrutiny by the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) as a complaint was made in relation to their TV advertising of their internet bingo site. There are a number of Posh Bingo adverts that can be seen on your television screens but it wasn’t the actual design of the advert like that of Tombola Bingo, this was a complaint about the £20 free bingo.
The complainant felt that the text, ‘£20 free play, terms and conditions apply, when you deposit and spend £10, new players only’, was misleading.
However the ASA did not uphold the complaint and the Posh Bingo advert in question is still seen on our TV sets. Posh Bingo is not the first, nor is it likely to be the last, internet bingo advert to come under fire from members of the ‘public’. We have seen Foxy Bingo hauled over the coals for a similar complaint, also with the same result and we have seen Tombola Bingo have to completely redesign their bingo adverts after a complaint was upheld by the ASA.
Now the question has to be asked, is it really Joe Public complaining or is there some sort of industrial espionage going on? Any sensible adult would read the text ‘terms and conditions apply’ and know that this isn’t entirely a free bingo offer, that some sort of financial transaction to Posh Bingo would need to take place in order to benefit from such an offer. Be it that you have to make a deposit in order to grab some free cash by way of a cash match offer, or simply that in order to withdraw any winnings you would need to make a deposit.
Maybe we are just too cynical and know the world of Internet bingo well enough to understand the rules of such a bingo promotion. It is possible though that a complete novice to bingo online could be confused. We are of the belief though that the complaint about Posh Bingo was likely to have been made from someone within the industry!
