Discovered that online casinos paid money and recommended online casinos to child-rearing bloggers as `` stress relief methods for caring for children ''



It has been revealed that one of the UK's leading online casinos was paying mom bloggers for posting links to its services. Mental health and addiction experts have voiced their condemnation.

Gambling firm-paid-mothers to its online games | Gambling |

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/may/14/gambling-firm-allegedly-paid-blogs-to-link-new-mothers-to-its-online-games



Coral, an online casino based in the United Kingdom, is in question. Coral made a contract with mom bloggers who post tips to reduce the stress of caring for a newborn, recommending 'online casinos' as one of the tips and embed a link to the company's services in the article. tied.

The mom blogger who signed the deal wrote on her blog, along with recipes for baby food, that ``Click here to play online bingo at Coral. is beneficial, ”he argues that online casinos are beneficial for new moms.

Another parenting blog recommends playing roulette at an online casino as 'an easy-to-learn, gorgeous way to win big prizes.'

In yet another parenting blog, there are cases where there are items that recommend online casinos and bingo, and there are cases where links to Coral are included.



According to guidelines from

the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) , which oversees the compliance of advertising in the UK, it is 'socially irresponsible' to present gambling as a way to alleviate loneliness or depression in gambling-related advertising. As such, it is prohibited.

ASA guidelines also prohibit presenting gambling as a 'solution to financial concerns.' In other words, both of the above two cases conflict with the ASA guidelines.

According to sources, Coral paid mom bloggers to post links to their online casinos. Big gambling companies have targeted women in recent years to expand their customer base. British media The Guardian reports that ``this kind of game is usually more popular with women than sports betting'' as to why women advertise online casinos.



According to Entain, the operator of Coral, the article containing the URL to Coral was published from 2014 to 2016 before acquiring the company in 2018. Entain has promised to remove any blog posts linking to Coral as soon as possible.

An Entain spokesperson said, 'Neither Coral nor any of Entain's brands actively target young mothers or other potentially vulnerable groups through affiliate marketing.' We couldn't prevent you from linking to the game site,' commented to The Guardian.

In addition, the person who leaked that Coral was paying money to the mama blogger to The Guardian seems to have worked for a company that brokers an advertising contract between a blogger and a company. According to this person, Coral also said that articles written by mom bloggers were checked before posting.

Entain noted, ``We have not paid any of the mom blogs cited as examples.'' However, it did not say whether any such deal existed prior to Entain's acquisition of Coral.



Claire Murdoch, director of mental health at the UK's National Health Service (NHS), said: 'At a time when gambling companies may be suffering from stress and sleep deprivation, particularly vulnerable issues, new single mothers are likely to It's ironic to target .' In addition, Mr. Murdoch said that the Coral case revealed this time is one of the cases of predatory behavior by the gambling industry, which has a market of billions of dollars (hundreds of billions of yen), and the NHS is a new mom. We will continue to invest more in mental health support than ever before.'

Henrietta Boden-Jones, founder and director of the National Gambling Clinic, which was set up by the NHS as the first treatment facility for gambling disorders, said: Direct targeting is highly concerning and condemnable.'

'Gambling is not a way out of psychological distress, and the messages in the blogs recommending online casinos are meant to help people who may be home alone for longer periods than they've ever experienced before,' Jones said. 'These are all gambling advertisements that are not exposed to the public eye, and for those who are new to gambling, they are 'promoting online casinos.'' It may not be so obvious,' he said.

It seems that only one blog revealed that the link contained in the article was due to the advertising contract. According to information sources, Coral's advertising strategy seems to have been 'to insert Coral's link in the blog so that Coral will be displayed at the top in Google search'. Entain commented, 'Advertising strategy had no effect on the display order of search engines.'

in Note, Posted by logu_ii