Ireland’s advertising regulator has upheld complaints about two YouTube ads by gaming operator TonyBet, saying they breached the country’s gambling advertising rules. The Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland found that both adverts presented gambling as a way to make money, which is not allowed under national standards.
The regulator assessed the complaints under the ASAI Code and determined that the content promoted gambling as a means of resolving personal and financial difficulties. The advertisements were ordered to be withdrawn and must not appear again in their current form.
One of the ads showed a man using his phone while sitting on a toilet. The caption stated: “Only 3% of people can do this. Make money while sitting on the toilet.”
The authority found that this wording implied gambling was a way to make money and downplayed the risks linked to betting. It concluded that the advertisement demonstrated gambling as a way of earning money, which can cause financial harm.
In response, TonyBet said the inappropriate wording resulted from “human error” that slipped past its usual checks. The company stated that a third party responsible for uploading the material did not conduct a compliance review before publication. TonyBet acknowledged that it failed to follow its own advertising guidance.
A separate YouTube advertisement was also ruled against. This ad featured a woman holding a baby and included the line “It’s hard to pay my rent and take care of my babies, but I made $8,500 last month.”
In another version of the wording presented in the ruling, the text read: “it’s hard to pay my rent and take care of my babies” followed later by “But I made $8,500 last month.”
The regulator found that the advertisement clearly suggested gambling could solve financial hardship. One complainant argued that the content had “targeted vulnerable individuals and perpetuated dangerous stereotypes, potentially encouraging harmful gambling behaviours”.
The authority found that the advertisement presented gambling as a way to make money and therefore breached the code. It ruled that the advert must not be used again in its current form.
TonyBet confirmed that it had taken immediate action following the rulings and said,“We have urgently discontinued non-compliant advertisements with immediate effect. We are fully committed to compliance with respective rules and regulations in the territory of Ireland.”
The operator explained that internal advertising guidance is shared among its teams and outlines the provisions of the ASAI Code. It said that advertisements are subject to a second round of approvals through its Jira system.
However, the company said that the two ads were handled by a mobile affiliation partner. TonyBet cited “human error” and stated that a new employee at the partner company had not completed thorough checks of the advertising templates prior to distribution.
The ruling recorded the company’s explanation as follows: “They said that the partner did not warn them that the advertising material would be launched for YouTube and due to high workload, the Tonybet Marketing team missed the material in question and campaign managers launched the material automatically, assuming it has passed the multiple checks.”
The regulator also noted, “They underlined that they were fully committed to the compliance with respective rules and regulations in the territory of Ireland and the current advertisement launch was not a deliberate action of the company but a mistake of a third-party employee.”
TonyBet said it has created additional training sessions for relevant stakeholders and will review its ongoing relationship with the affiliate partner involved.
This is not the first time TonyBet has faced regulatory action in Europe. In the Netherlands, the operator was previously warned over the lack of customer service in the Dutch language. Under local rules, licensees are required to offer reliable customer service in Dutch 24 hours a day.
Several months later, the Dutch regulator reprimanded TonyBet for offering bets on the winner of the Ballon d’Or and the winner of the Ballon d’Or at the FIFA Club World Cup. These markets rely on jury voting rather than athlete performance and can therefore be influenced. As a result, such betting markets are prohibited in the Netherlands.
The Irish rulings reinforce the strict approach taken by regulators when gambling advertising suggests that betting can provide financial security or serve as a reliable source of income.
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