The Irish Advertising Standards Authority (IASA) has ordered the removal of two sponsored YouTube advertisements linked to TonyBet, after ruling that both breached Ireland’s advertising standards for gambling.
According to the authority, the ads were found to present gambling as a solution to personal or financial hardship. One complainant argued the content had ‘targeted vulnerable individuals and perpetuated dangerous stereotypes, potentially encouraging harmful gambling behaviours’.
One of the ads showed a woman holding a baby, accompanied by the text: ‘it’s hard to pay my rent and take care of my babies’. Later in the same video, she appears smiling with a thumbs-up, alongside the claim: ‘But I made $8,500 last month.’
The second advert featured a man using his phone while sitting on a toilet, with on-screen text stating: ‘Only 3% of people can do this. Make money while sitting on the toilet.’
Following the IASA decision, TonyBet said it ‘urgently discontinued non-compliant advertisements with immediate effect’, while reiterating its commitment to meeting regulatory and advertising standards.
The operator explained that its internal advertising guidance reflects the ASAI code and that campaigns normally undergo multiple approval stages, including secondary checks through the company’s Jira system.
However, in this case, the ads were managed by a mobile affiliation partner. TonyBet attributed the breach to ‘human error’, stating that a new employee at the partner organisation failed to fully review the advertising templates before distribution.
The ruling stated: “They said that the partner did not warn them that the advertising material would be launched for YouTube and due to high workload, the Tonybet Marketing team missed the material in question and campaign managers launched the material automatically, assuming it has passed the multiple checks.”
To prevent similar issues in the future, TonyBet confirmed it has introduced additional training for relevant stakeholders and is reviewing its ongoing relationship with the affiliate partner.
The ruling concluded: “They underlined that they were fully committed to the compliance with respective rules and regulations in the territory of Ireland and the current advertisement launch was not a deliberate action of the company but a mistake of a third-party employee.”