Following on from the ASA’s 100 Children Report ‘which cast serious doubt on anecdotal views that children are being “bombarded” with age restricted ads’, the ASA has published a new report which found 0.06% of the 82,567 ads monitored during their investigation had been mistargeted to under 18s.

The Online Supply Pathway of Age Restricted Ads (“Report”) highlighted the strong work that has been done to reduce the risk of gambling ads being mistargeted to under 18s, as well as providing some key learnings on how ad targeting compliance can be further improved.

Although the Report looked at adverts for all age-restricted content (including foods high in fat, salt & sugar (‘HFSS’), alcohol, weight-loss products/procedures, gambling, cosmetic surgery, and e-cigarettes (“Regulated Ads”)) the focus of this article will be gambling ads.

The regulations

Gambling operators should remember the importance of ongoing monitoring once their ads are live, as the responsibility for compliance remains with the licensed operator and cannot be removed by finding fault in the intermediary, affiliate, or publisher. Under CAP 16.3.13 gambling advertisers must ensure their ads are not directed at those aged below 18 years ‘through the selection of media or context in which they appear.’

This is further explained in the ASA guidelines, which requires that gambling ads ‘are not directed at children (under-16s) and young people (aged 16 and 17) …and do not appear alongside media where children and/or young people form more than 25% of the audience.’

The investigation

Over a three month period the ASA monitored ads served to a range of adult, child, and neutral avatar profiles they created. These avatars visited 55 websites and 20 YouTube channels disproportionately popular with under 18s. The results were:

• 82,657 ads were served to the avatars during this time.
• 345 of the ads served were related to Regulated Ads.
• 06% of the ads were mistargeted Regulated Ads seen by the child profiles.
• This related to six specific gambling advertisers which had mistargeted ads.

The ASA concluded there was no systemic issues, nor evidence that any breach was deliberate or from an undue lack of care.

The gambling ads

The ASA published findings on five of the gambling advertisers, where it took a pragmatic approach by not only looking at the operator’s role, but also that of the intermediary, publisher, or affiliate.

Each of the six instances of gambling ads being mistargeted referenced in the Report happened even where the contracts, tools, and targeting had all been implemented correctly on the advertiser’s side. However, incorrect categorisation of sites by either intermediaries and publishers, or affiliates acting out of their remit meant these gambling ads appeared on sites or channels where more than 25% of the audience was under 18, which breached CAP 16.3.13.

Mr Vegas

The ad appeared on a website aimed at A-Level students. Although the ad had utilised approved domain lists, category exclusions, and daily monitoring, the programmatic ad partner had incorrectly categorised the site as ‘reference and directory’ rather than ‘child education’. Furthermore, the website had failed to block social casino games on their exclusion list.

ASA recommendations: Advertisers should check that websites on which gambling ads will be published have been correctly categorised, ensuring all possible restrictions are in place, and carrying out ongoing monitoring.

Sky Bet

The ad appeared on a Roblox trading website, which had a user base of at least 30% under 18s. The ad had been served by an affiliate who had acted against their contractual agreement and guidelines, resulting in their termination by the gambling operator. The site also confirmed that they had a block on gambling ads and were unsure how this bypassed their protections.

ASA recommendations: Affiliate parties should comply with their obligations. We would add that it is critical that gambling operators have contracts in place with all their marketing/advertising affiliates, and that these contracts (along with the usual prohibitions on the content and placement of gambling ads) include an immediate termination right for the operator in the event of breach – whether innocent or intentional by the affiliate.

Grosvenor Casinos

The ad appeared on an online calculator website where over 30% of the audience was under 18. The ad made it through various tools of demographic targeting, exclusion lists, and monitoring by the advertiser, as well as blocking of gambling ads by the website.

ASA recommendations: Gambling advertisers must conduct ongoing monitoring of publisher websites, and regularly update blocklists.

888Casino

The ad appeared on a YouTube channel where over 30% of the audience was under 18. Using the user-centric targeting, 888 had targeted age verified users over 25, alongside content exclusion lists to avoid the content being shown around family or child appealing videos. Furthermore, data showed nobody under 25 had seen the content.

ASA recommendations: Gambling advertisers must conduct ongoing monitoring of channels where their content appears, including the regular updating of blocklists, and correctly listing channels as ‘made for kids’.

Coral

The ad appeared on a website aimed at A-Level students. Coral uses Outlook for 99% of their ad serving, which implemented a logged in 18+ restriction. However, in this case the ad was served via Microsoft which implemented a blacklisting approach. In a proactive response, this relationship had already been suspended until a whitelisting approach could be implemented.

ASA recommendations: Gambling advertisers must conduct ongoing monitoring of publisher websites, regular updating of blocklists, and checking that websites have been categorised correctly.

Key learnings

Although the results from the ASA’s investigation show a positive trend of compliance for gambling advertising, there are nonetheless key learnings that all gambling advertisers should consider:

• Ensure the ASA guidelines on targeting age-restricted ads have been implemented, and that your legal, compliance, and marketing teams are aware of them through regular training and updates.
• Check you are utilising all available targeting tools, and where possible use whitelisting (rather than relying on blacklisting).
• Review your affiliate and advertising agreements to check the relevant regulatory obligations are reflected and there are clear termination rights.
• Proactively remind your advertising partners of their obligations and the guidelines they should be following.
• Regularly review and audit where your adverts are being targeted to ensure they are not inadvertently breaching the regulations.
• In an era of children regularly using their parents’ accounts and devices to view content, ensuring your ads do not appear alongside any child-appealing content on YouTube and other platforms is important, as they may be logged into an 18+ verified account.

For a review of your current ad targeting approach or advice on steps you could be taking to meet the requirements of the Report, we’re here to help.