Geordie Shore star Sam Gowland breaks Instagram advertising rules by promoting betting tips site
GEORDIE Shore star Sam Gowland has broken Instagram advertising rules after promoting a betting tips website.
The former Love Island contestant told his 1.2million followers that Thebettingman site was the “way forward” if they wanted to make easy money.
He boasted that the tipster service helped him pay for a new car and added that it was the “best second source of income I ever had”.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) found he had failed to clearly label the post as marketing and irresponsibly promoted gambling as a means of financial security.
In a post on his Instagram story dated June 2 this year, Gowland wrote: "I told use [sic] Thursday night if u wanted to make money the betting man is the way forward for £25!
"12 wins out of 14 this weekend and another winner this morning."
'THE WAY FORWARD'
He followed it with a post reading: "£450 quid up this weekend and over £1k up for the week! And that's the reason I tell use [sic] to join."
Gowland, who went on to appear in series 16 to 20 of MTV's Geordie Shore, linked his posts to Thebettingman's website.
He wrote: "£25 to join vip group swipe up to get in the group for tonight's bets and the rest of the weeks bets."
He added: "Best second source of income I've ever had … hence the new car I'm getting … not bad for £25" followed by "to join vip tips group swipe up and watch the profits roll in like the rest of the members".
In a ruling published on Wednesday, ASA found that even though it is not itself a betting site, promoting Thebettingman as an easy way to make money irresponsibly encouraged gambling.
Best second source of income I've ever had … hence the new car I'm getting … not bad for £25."
Sam Gowland
Gowland was also 24 at the time of posting - breaching rules on featuring young people in gambling adverts.
Rules drawn up by the Gambling Commission state: "No-one who is, or seems to be, under 25 years old may be featured gambling (in marketing communications ) or playing a significant role."
ASA also found Gowland had failed to mark the post with the hashtag #ad, or the hashtags #18+ and #gambleresponsibly.
Representatives for Thebettingman said they had not asked Gowland to post the story, but acknowledged all future posts about their product should be labelled as ads.
ASA said in its ruling that the posts must be removed in their current form and must be obviously identifiable as ads in future.
INVESTIGATION
It added: "We told (Thebettingman) to ensure that their ads did not suggest that using betting tipsters was a way of achieving financial security, and not to feature a young person under 25 years of age to promote a gambling advice service."
It comes after Gemma Collins was slammed for breaching ad rules by promoting a weight loss jab.
The reality star hailed injections by SkinnyJab earlier this year.
But her post on Instagram did not make clear that it was an advert.
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SkinnyJab was one of three firms criticised by the ASA for wrongly promoting prescription-only medicines.
It was also criticised by the ASA for making weight loss claims that were “not compatible with good medical and nutritional practice”.
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Her post which promoted a Swarovski diamond-encrusted mobile phone case that retails for around £3,000 was ruled as not being clear enough that it was an advert.
