Health Lottery ad banned for exaggerating jackpots
The ASA upholds complaints made against Health Lottery Facebook post that said players could win up to £500k every week
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has banned a Facebook promotion for the Health Lottery after the post exaggerated the likely winnings available in the draw.
The Facebook post for the Health Lottery in January read: “You know what they say five chances to win is better than one, that’s why we run five weekly draws!
“What’s more, each draw has a jackpot of up to £100k – that means that there is a potential half a million pounds up for grabs week in week out!… Up to £500k can be won every week.
Three complainants understood the jackpot was usually significantly lower than £100,000 and argued the claim “up to £100k jackpot” and “up to £500k every week” was misleading.
The ASA agreed the post was misleading and ruled the ad must not appear again in its current form.
“We acknowledged the references to the jackpots were preceded with “up to”, making it clear that the top jackpot amounts were not always available,” said a statement from the regulatory body.
“However, we noted from the information provided by the Health Lottery that, although there had been winners of £100,000 in the past, there had been no winners of that amount since February 2015 when five weekly draws had been introduced.
“We therefore considered the claim “up to £100k” no longer represented a realistic amount that was likely to be won as a jackpot prize.”
This is the first time a gambling company has been sanctioned by the ASA following claims from the association’s chairman, Lord David Currie, that operators have learned their lesson in regards to advertising.