Party Gaming Execs must feel that they have ‘kick me’ on their backs

Party Gaming the people behind Party Poker must sometimes think that being in the online poker and gaming industry isn’t really worth all the aggravation. Not only have they been heavily penalised financially for breaking anti-internet poker and gaming laws in America but now the UK’s ASA are flexing their legislative muscles too.

The latest muddle that Party Poker find themselves in, is in respect of a recent magazine advertisement that made the claim “Warning! Be careful where you win, players win more at Party Poker”, and “Play for a $2m guaranteed prize pool … find out why more people love to win at Party Poker.com”. As a result of one complaint being filed against the advertisement the ASA has investigated the Party Poker magazine ad and the adjudication made has been that the complaint has been upheld, resulting in the ad being banned.

The complaint centred on challenging the Party Poker claim that; 1. Players win more at Party Poker, and 2. More people love to win at Party Poker.com. The belief being that this was misleading and could not be substantiated by Party Poker. Party Poker defended the advertisement by sending supporting evidence in the form of a survey produced by an independent company Poker Player Research Limited (PPR). PPR had carried a survey of 10,000 regular poker players and their findings were used as a basis of the statements used in the final Party Poker advertisement. The ASA however found the advertisement to be subjecteve and named the advertisment as they believed that it breached 3.1. Substantiation and 7.1 Truthfulness of the CAP code. A full report on the final adjudication can be found by clicking on this link.

The feeling here in the office is that Party Gaming don’t seem to be guilty of any of the breaches listed. In fact Party Poker were so concerned that they not break any rules that they sought the guidance of the Copy Advice Team at CAP to ensure that the advertisement was not in breach of any advertising guideline codes.

So don’t pack up the internet poker and gaming business Party Poker please, even if it does seem that sometimes it is too much of a legislative minefield out there. We the players all love the sites and certainly online poker wouldn’t be the same without Party Poker.