Jumpman Gaming rapped by ASA over Lights Camera Bingo site

The UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has upheld a complaint against Jumpman Gaming’s Lights Camera Bingo site, which was found to have encouraged harmful gambling behaviour.

The complaint related to the Lights Camera Bingo website in March. When consumers left the website to open another tab on an internet browser, a camera symbol and the words “Hey! Come Back!” appeared in the open tab.

Lights Camera Bingo said the intention and only purpose behind the message was to alert a customer that the website had not been closed, pointing out that only 5 per cent of its customer base accessed the website on a desktop device and would see the message as a browser feature, while customers using a mobile device would see the message if they used the Safari web browser on an iPhone.

In its defence, the operator said it recognised the requirements of the CAP Code and frequently sought bespoke advice from the CAP Copy Advice service but did not for this ad, as the company did not deem it necessary.

The ASA considered, however, that the message was deemed to be a marketing communication that fell within the remit of the CAP Code, as the message was directly connected with the supply of Lights Camera Bingo’s bingo playing service, by alerting customers to return to that web page after they had left it.

“While we accepted that some consumers may visit more than one website at a time and therefore have several tabs open, we considered that they may also have opened another tab because they had decided to leave the Lights Camera Bingo website,” said the ASA in its ruling.

“The message “Hey! Come Back!” continued to flash for the duration that the tab remained opened and disappeared only when someone clicked to close the tab or went back onto the web page. We considered in that format, consumers’ attention would be drawn to seeing the message.”

The ASA acknowledged the operator’s view that the message was intended to alert customers that they had not closed the tab or logged out of their accounts, and that it reminded them to do so.

However, the message did not say “close the tab” or “log out”, and that by displaying a call to action to “come back”, the ASA said this would be understood as an instruction, strongly encouraging consumers to return to using the website, when they had either paused their bingo play or stopped play by leaving the web page.

The ASA also considered that particularly in the case of people who had a gambling problem or were recovering gambling addicts, the message could exploit the susceptibilities of vulnerable people.

For those reasons, the ad was found to ahve encouraged consumers to engage in gambling behaviour that could lead to financial, social or emotional harm, exploited the susceptibilities of vulnerable people, and was therefore irresponsible and breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 16.1, 16.3, 16.3.1 and 16.3.2 (Gambling).