Advertising Code Committee rejects complaint against Batavia Casino

The Advertising Code Foundation has rejected a complaint against an advertisement by Batavia Casino. The company was accused of suggesting unfair chances of winning because four out of five people in the advertisement won. The Advertising Code Committee did not go along with that line of thinking.

The Advertising Code Foundation received a complaint against the advertisement of Batavia Casino. The advertisement shows several people playing at Batavia Casino on their laptops, tablet, or phone. In contrast to advertising, at Indian casinos everyone wins, if not in money - then in the emotional. Four out of five people in the video win, judging by the confetti coming out of their device. Only two players on the couch don't win, to the delight of a woman walking by who did win just now in the kitchen playing the game Fire Joker.

The complaint with the Advertising Code Committee

That 80% of the people in the commercial of Batavia Casino win, was against the grain of someone who then filed a complaint with the Advertising Code Foundation:

"The television commercial is misleading because it suggests that participants in the gambling game have a high chance of winning the grand prize or another big prize. In four out of five examples given in the commercial, a first prize or a grand prize is won. Only in one case is there a loss. This does not reflect the reality of participating in a gambling game. [...] By suggesting that participants have a high chance of winning, the advertisement is misleading and harmful to consumers in general and to people with a (predisposition to) gambling addiction."

Batavia Casino's defence

Batavia Casino defended itself against the complaint received by the Advertising Code Foundation. Among other things, it wrote that the average consumer is attentive and circumspect, and would not take the advertisement as a serious statement about the probability of winning:

"It is not possible to see how a claim about the probability of winning could be derived from the ratio of the successful moments and loss moments shown in the commercial. Nothing is said or suggested in the commercial about a chance of winning."

Batavia Casino

"To the extent that the average consumer would still infer an assertion about a chance of winning from the commercial, given the humorous and absurdist tone and content of the commercial, it is clear that it is not intended to provide serious insight into the odds of winning." Batavia Casino also referred in its defense to a case that was heard by the Advertising Code Committee in 2019 and upheld by the Board of Appeals in 2020. In that advertisement for the State Lottery on Facebook, the Board of Appeal ruled that there was indeed a false representation of the probability of winning.

According to Batavia Casino, that case was not comparable to the complaint against their advertising. In the case cited, there was a wheel that could be turned with a clearly suggested chance of winning by a division into areas. The Batavia Casino advertisement, according to Batavia Casino, did not have such a clear presentation of chances of winning.

Judgment of the Advertising Code Committee on the Batavia Casino advertisement

The Advertising Code Committee did not allow the complaint against Batavia Casino to succeed. According to the Committee, the advertising does not paint a serious picture about the chances of winning:

"This complaint can not succeed. The average consumer will understand that the advertisement is only intended to draw attention in a playful way to the online games of chance of the advertiser, without giving a serious picture of the chances of winning, which is also evidenced by the explosion of confetti from the devices with which the game is played."

Chairman Advertising Code Committee

Previously, complaints against Holland Casino Online and the TOTO were also submitted to the Advertising Code Foundation. Those two complaints were also unsuccessful.