The advertising watchdog has upheld complaints the Mr Vegas’s Facebook ads had a strong appeal to under-18s.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has upheld complaints against casino operator, Mr Vegas, after Facebook ads were found to have breached the code for targeting under-18s.
The watchdog’s code for operators dictate that gambling ads must not likely be of “strong appeal to children or young persons, especially by reflecting or being associated with youth culture”. The guidance advises operators to avoid child-oriented cartoon content or animated styles.
Four ads were under scrutiny by the ASA, and although they were intended for adult players, the style of the campaigns could be considered as high-risk for its appeal to children.
One ad on Facebook, seen on 5 February 2026, included an image of a black brick wall with five tiles featuring what the ASA called “cute” cartoon imagery that represented five online, gambling games. The ad had the headline: “Mr Vegas Casino Slots Sports,” with the caption, “new games every. single. week [sic].”
One tile included the text, “PiNK ELEPHANTS 2” [sic], with a large pink cartoon elephant, backlit by beams of light on a lilac background, which the ASA found to be “reminiscent of children’s cartoons and story books”,
Another tile featured a large robotic, cartoon shark with its jaws around the text “RAZOR RETURNS”, on a cartoon background showing an ocean, landscape and sky. A third tile had a sweet theme and featured bright, multi-coloured, bubbly text, which read, “Sweet Bonanza”, on a blue and pink background.
A fourth tile showed an animated fisherman, backlit by beams of light and holding a large fish, and the text, “BIG BASS BONANZA”.
In response to the complaints, My Vegas said: “[The[ artwork that was intrinsic to, and inseparable from, the branded identity of the games. Those games were commercially published slot games by established game developers, licensed by the Gambling Commission and intended exclusively for adult audiences in regulated gambling markets.”
The operator also highlighted it had applied an audience exclusion and placement restriction to their ads and was placed on platforms where Meta enforced verification or age-gating.
Despite this, the ASA said these elements were considered likely to be of strongly appeal to under-18s.
The regulator pointed to an Ofcom survey, which suggested that as much as 30% of three to 17-year-olds and 56% of 16 to 17-year-olds are Facebook users – who could be exposed to ads on the platform.
While Meta does have ‘teen’ accounts for Facebook with restricted settings, this requires a self-declared age – which is not entirely reliable, as a large percentage of children do not self-report their age accurately.
Earlier this year, the ASA banned ads from an online betting site, Oddschecker, because it contained football stars Harry Kane and Erling Haaland, which were considered to have a “strong appeal to under-18s”.
This is despite the fact the ad account was set to over-18s, but the ASA affirmed its understanding that “at least a significant number of children who had not used their real date of birth when signing up”.
That being said, a previously investigated ad for operator Betway featuring ex-Arsenal player Thierry Henry was cleared by the agency and was determined not to be strongly appealing to under-18s.
