The commission banned advertisements for ASA social casinos SpinX Games Ltd, Dataverse Co Limited, Huuuge Global Limited, Mobee Co Ltd, and Zeroo Gravity Games LLC.

All of the advertising under review were sponsored promotions on the TikTok app, which deceived users into thinking they could win real money by playing social casino games.

Take Zeroo Gravity Games' Cash Tornado app as an example. It showcased slot gameplay visuals accompanied by appropriate audio. Words like "hitting the jackpot" are constrained by the ASA's definition of gambling and could lead to misunderstandings for bettors.

The CAP Code, which governs non-broadcast advertising and direct and promotional marketing in the United Kingdom, was violated by all five of these entities. Specifically, rule 3.3 makes it clear that advertisements cannot mislead by omitting material facts and rule 3.1 stipulates that marketing communications cannot "materially mislead."

Not responding to ASA questions also led to Mobee being found in violation of rule 1.7. The CAP Code was marked by the body as an example of "apparent disregard" because of the ASA's perceived disproportionate delay in responding to its questions.

The advertising standard authority (ASA) has ruled that all five of these adverts cannot run in their existing formats and has cautioned the companies involved to remove any suggestion that players could win actual cash or other physical rewards by playing social casino games.

Censorship of social casino marketing by the ASA
The ASA's broader work on paid-for gambling commercials reported for inquiry includes the banning of these ads. Ads cannot mislead consumers, according to the guidelines.

TikTok has also mentioned its own advertising policies regarding social casino games, which prohibits anything that suggests users can earn real money or makes direct analogies to gambling.

After discovering the ads in question violated TikTok's regulations, the platform promptly removed them.

Away from social casino games, the ASA cautioned bookmaker Geoff Banks Online in July for a deceptive offer that implied bettors needed to reply to a text message in order to be eligible for the promotion, even though the ad didn't mention that.