Advertising Poker And Bansturbation
/ Editor / 20 December 2007 / Leave a comment
WHAT would happen if a minor were exposed to an advert for online poker?
Very possibly, the child would ignore it, more interested in the surrounding adverts for sugar, toys and debt consolidation services.
But if the child is a nine-year-old girl watching The Simpsons in the later afternoon or early evening, and her father is New Zealand's Problem Gambling Foundation chief executive John Stansfield, there will be ramifications.
TV3, which broadcasts the advert, says it has done nothing wrong. The commercial was "vetted by the Television Commercials Approval Bureau which pre-screens all TV ads before they go to air, in line with the Advertising Standards Authority guidelines".
Says TV3 marketing director Roger Beaumont in the New Zealand Herald: "This ad was deemed acceptable outside of children's programme time - the same classification awarded to TAB and Lotto commercials."
As reported: "Mr Stansfield said the commercial encouraged young people to think poker was a game of skill, and that they could become stars if they practised enough."
Is this wrong? Poker requires skill, if you are to win over time. Anyone can get lucky in one tournament. But to make a living from poker over a period of years requires know how and, dare we say. practice.
Says Mr Stansfield: "My daughter spotted it. She's 9. She was watching The Simpsons. There were people with great ball-playing skills, and suddenly it switched to poker playing. We have been trying to get the Department of Internal Affairs to do something about it, but TV3 should pull it themselves."
The New Zealand Gambling Act bans online or "remote interactive gambling" unless it is promoted by the Lotteries Commission, run under the Racing Act, conducted by someone outside New Zealand or is a sales promotion scheme in the form of a lottery. Also banned are adverts for "overseas gambling".
Right it is that protections are in place. But is there not an argument against banning things, something that can make the prohibited appear glamorous and attractive to the young and impressionable? Are we guilty of bansturbation?
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