The Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland (ASAI) has reprimanded TonyBet after two sponsored YouTube advertisements were found to breach the country’s Advertising Code, with both ads promoting gambling as a solution to financial hardship.
Ads Linked Financial Struggle to Gambling Gains
The two advertisements at the centre of the complaint presented gambling as a means of resolving personal financial difficulties — content the ASAI determined fell outside the bounds of acceptable advertising under Irish regulations.
The first ad showed a man using a mobile phone while sitting on a toilet, accompanied by on-screen text reading: “Only 3% of people can do this. Make money while sitting on the toilet.” A responsibility message and terms and conditions appeared in a footnote.
The second ad depicted a woman holding a baby, with text stating: “It’s hard to pay my rent and take care of my babies.” The clip then showed the woman giving a thumbs-up alongside text claiming she had earned $8,500 the previous month. A responsibility message and terms and conditions were again included in a footnote.
Following an examination of complaints, the ASAI concluded that both advertisements were non-compliant due to the manner in which they depicted gambling as a financial remedy, and the contexts in which they appeared. TonyBet was ordered to withdraw both ads, which it did. No further penalty was imposed.
TonyBet Attributes Breach to Affiliate Partner
In response to the complaints, TonyBet said it maintains internal controls designed to prevent non-compliant marketing from reaching publication. The operator publishes advertising guidance on an internal Confluence page that incorporates provisions of the ASAI code, and marketing campaigns are subject to compliance review through an internal Jira ticketing system, described as a second line of defence before publication.
TonyBet attributed the breach to a mobile affiliation partner that had received the company’s marketing compliance guidelines and staff training. Following an expansion of the partner’s team, a new employee failed to check advertising templates against those guidelines before uploading them for distribution. TonyBet stated it had not been informed the material would be published on YouTube.
Due to internal workload pressures, the company’s marketing team did not identify the non-compliant content before campaign managers released the ads, having assumed the required checks had already been completed. TonyBet described the lapse as the result of human error.
Remedial Steps Taken
Following the incident, TonyBet raised compliance concerns with its marketing management, organised additional training sessions, and increased the number of approval steps in its material review process from two to five. The company also indicated it would review its ongoing relationship with the affiliate partner.
Source: Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland (ASAI)
