Fairy-tale Themed Online Casino Games Given the Boot From Casinos!

In May, online casino games on sites called Fairies Forest and Fairytale Forest were banned for the likelihood that they may appeal to children.

The Online Casino Games, the Sites and the Problem

M88.com promoted three games – Fairytale Legends Hansel and Gretel, Fairytale Legends Red Riding Hood and Fairies Forest back in January. The games feature animated images of a fairy in a forest, a pixie and a wolf.

The Fairer Gambling campaign, however, has complained that the content of the three ads was likely to appeal to children.

However, ProgressPlay, trading as m88.com responded to the complaints by making the games accessible only once members logged into their player account and promptly modified the ads to remove all images of fairies and what it dubbed “other unsuitable characters.”

The site, however, claims that the games were produced by a third-party software company and appeared on other websites that are run by different casino operators, too.

What the Advertising Rules Say

Advertising rules dictate that casino gaming ads must not be of any appeal to children or underage gamers, especially by being associated with or reflecting youth culture.

Meanwhile, the Advertising Standards Authority has had it welcomes the interim action taken by the site in response to the complaint.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) further noted that Fairytale Legends Red Riding Hood was based on a much-loved children’s fairytale and included animated images of a fairy and a wolf. Moreover, the Hansel and Gretel game featured a nighttime forest complete with gameplay coins and stars.

The ASA said it considers fairies to be popular with children and that the wolf was heavily exaggerated and included big eyes, prominent nose and a long muzzle. It considered the appearance of the wolf to resemble characters from children’s films and TV shows. The Fairies Forest game also displayed an animated image of a fairy in a forest with colourful flowers.

The ASA determined that the three games were to be of appeal to children and ruled that they should not appear in that format.

More Complaints, More Rulings

In another ruling after more complaints by Fairer Gambling, no less than six casino games appearing on the sites letou.co.uk and fun88.co.uk have been banned over their likely appeal to youngsters. Those games feature images of dragons, a young girl, pixies, castles, princes and animated animals.

The ads, from TGP Europe Gaming ads reported that the games had been removed before it even received details of the complaint. It also cited that the ads were produced by a third-party software developer and appeared on other gaming sites.

TGP responded that determining whether a gaming ad has a special appeal to underage gamers was highly subjective and that it believed the themes of dragons and castles are popular thanks to currently popular TV series that are aimed at adults.

The ASA claimed that the ads sported animated images likely to appeal to youngsters and were marketing products which breached advertising rules.