William Hill Bingo In Hot Water With ASA

The Advertising Standards Authority has banned a television advertising campaign being run by William Hill, due to the fact that the ad features a woman who was “desperate” to play bingo and was hiding this fact from her family.

The ad depicts a man and woman at breakfast time in the kitchen. She hurries him out by turning the clock forward so he thinks he will be late for work. She then says “I get mine the minute he’s out the door,” and goes upstairs to log onto the William Hill bingo website.

The ASA banned the ad as they said it condoned socially irresponsible gambling behaviour that might lead to financial, emotional or social harm. They had received 7 complaints regarding the ad and viewers complaints included that this kind of deception was tantamount to the fact that the woman had a gambling problem, whereas William Hill took the stance that the woman was being light hearted about the fact that she wanted her husband out of the house to have a quiet moment playing bingo.

ASA responded that the fact that the woman was still in her pyjamas when she went upstairs to play bingo implied that she needed to play bingo urgently.