Midnite AI Gambling Ad Banned Over ‘Under-25’ Appearance

A Limay Media advert, advertising gambling site has been banned. The Advertising Standards Authority ruled that the star of the ad appeared to be under 25.

The paid TikTok advert showed a man using a gambling app, promoting a World Cup offer. However, there was one unusual complication - the man does not exist.

The character had been generated entirely using artificial intelligence by Limay Media. Nevertheless, the ASA decided that he looked like he could be under 25, meaning the advert breached rules.

The ruling against Midnite and Limay Media comes directly alongside another ASA decision. Yet this one swung the other way. Gambling adverts appearing on a Counter-Strike esports website were cleared, despite concerns that under-18s could potentially see them.

In the White Hat Gaming case, the ASA believed that the website showing the ads was aimed overwhelmingly at adults and so did not uphold the ruling.

Why Was the Midnite AI Advert Banned?

UK advertising rules state that anyone who is, or appears to be, under 25 cannot play a significant role in a gambling advert.

The Midnite advert, seen on TikTok on July 3, featured an AI-generated man using a gambling app and reacting excitedly to a promotional offer.

Midnite told the ASA that it had not sanctioned the advert. According to the operator, affiliate Limay Media had created it without being contracted to publish paid social media posts, and Midnite has since ended its relationship with the company.

Limay Media confirmed that the person shown was entirely fictional and had not been generated using footage or images of a real person. However, the prompt used to create him did not specify an age.

The ASA pointed to the character's smooth skin, youthful facial features, hairstyle, grey hoodie and animated behaviour. Taken together, it believed viewers were likely to perceive him as being in his late teens or early twenties. The fact that he didn’t actually exist was therefore irrelevant.

AI Does Not Avoid Gambling Advertising Age Rules

The ruling creates a relatively straightforward lesson for gambling companies increasingly using generative AI in marketing. Creating a fictional person does not remove the requirement to consider how old that person appears.

In fact, AI may introduce an additional Gcompliance problem. A conventional advert featuring an actor can use their real age as part of the approval process. An AI-generated person has no real date of birth at all.

Advertisers must instead make sure the generated appearance itself clearly satisfies the rules. That could mean specifying age directly within image or video prompts, as Limay Media says it now does.

Counter-Strike Gambling Ads Cleared on Same Day

A separate ASA ruling published today, September 16, shows another side of gambling advertising's age restrictions.

White Hat Gaming faced a complaint after adverts for Casimba and The Grand Ivy Casino appeared on HLTV. The complainant had not undergone age verification. Nevertheless, the ASA decided the adverts had been appropriately placed.

Gambling adverts must not be directed at children, and advertisers should not use a medium where more than 25% of the audience is under 18.

Reliable age data for visitors to the HLTV website was not available. Social media figures suggested 1.5% of its Instagram audience and 3.6% of Twitter interactions were from 13 to 17-year-olds. ASA acknowledged those figures could not establish the website's audience profile.

HLTV's coverage centres around professional esports, including match statistics, player information, tournament coverage and betting odds. Although watching Counter-Strike could potentially appeal to younger users, the ASA decided that the presentation of the page itself was not obviously targeted towards children.

With nothing indicating that under-18s were likely to represent more than 25% of its audience, the complaint was not upheld.

In the Midnite advert, what mattered was how old one fictional person appeared to be. Yet with the Counter-Strike adverts, the ASA had to consider who was likely to be seeing them.