United Kingdom: Issued ruling in ASA investigation into Ladbrokes regarding gambling advertisement

On 21 December 2022, UK's Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) issued a ruling in its investigation of gambling company Ladbrokes. The initial complaint concerned a tweet showing Premier League footballers promoting Ladbrokes, which could constitute a breach of the CAP Code by appealing to individuals under 18. Ladbrokes communicated to ASA that it had considered that the athletes would have a strong influence on minors, and therefore attempted to restrict the tweet from being viewed by users that Twitter has confirmed as above 18 years old. Since Twitter users verify their age themselves, Ladbrokes, using targeting and age-gating tools, only marketed the tweet towards individuals over 25 years of age. The ASA, however, held that the advertisement could only have been acceptable in a medium that had been robustly age-verified. As a result, the ACA communicated to Ladbrokes that the advertisement should not appear again in its current form.