Although this blog is primarily about gambling – I could not resist letting off some steam about our telephone service provider in South Africa known as Telkom.Those of you who read this blog regularly may have noticed that there has been no posts for the past 4 days. This is not because we didn’t have anything to say, but because our phone lines were struck by lightning. This does happen from time to time and is all well and good but despite numerous telephone calls and promises that “the technician will be there at 11am” It took 5 days for them to eventually bother to come around and fix the problem, and this was achieved purely by calling on a favour of a contact we have at Telkom, otherwise who knows how much longer it would have taken. We are also zoned as a business which is supposed to get preferential treatment compared to a residential address. If this is what preferential treatment is, then I would hate to see how long they take to fix a residential telephone!!!!

I wish another telephone provider would come into South Africa as we would be their first customer!!!

Sometimes the ASA can get a bit ridiculous in our opionion. They have banned 3 of Ladbrokes tv ads due to a single complaint from a viewer. Below is Ladbrokes press release, and a link at the bottom where you can view the actual ads and decide for yourself if you believe they should have been banned

STATEMENT FROM LADBROKES IN RESPONSE TO ASA BAN ON LADBROKESCASINO.COM ADS .

Ladbrokes today confirmed it will seek a review of the ASA’s ruling to ban its award- winning advertising campaign for ladbrokescasino.com following just one complaint from a member of the public.

The betting and gaming leader believes the ruling is an incorrect application of the CAP (Broadcast) TV Advertising Standards Code and is in effect a ruling against using humour in gambling advertisements. Ladbrokes will now lodge a request for a review with the Independent Reviewer of ASA Adjudications.

John O’Reilly, Managing Director of Ladbrokes Remote Betting and Gaming commented: “Ladbrokes fully supports the code of practice relating to gambling advertising but this ruling is an example of political correctness going too far. We believe the ads are compliant as they are humorous and show people in fantastical situations to which no one would aspire. Consumers know that you cannot jump from a plane using a 30g pack of crisps as a parachute!”

At every stage of development process Ladbrokes’ marketing teams and advertising agency M&C Saatchi carefully ensured the campaign conformed with the relevant codes. Following production the advertisements were approved by Clearcast, the company responsible for the pre-transmission examination and clearance of television advertisements before broadcast.

Following the ASA’s draft recommendation to uphold the complaint, Ladbrokes requested a referral to the CAP General Media Panel, an independent panel made up of industry experts and one ASA Council member. Despite the panel’s recommendation to dismiss the complaint, the ASA Council ruled the ads were in breach of the CAP (Broadcast) TV Advertising Standards Code rule 11.10.1(h), by portraying gambling in a context of toughness and linking it to recklessness.

The campaign for ladbrokescasino.com was a finalist at the Cannes International Advertising Awards and was a London International Awards Silver Winner. The campaign was comprised of three advertisements – “Shark”, “Climb”, and “Parachute” – with all three using a documentary style format to depict fantastical situations where people undertake bizarre acts to “quench their thrill buds”.

Check out the Banned Casino TV Adverts.

Cryptologic has launched 3 new games – Spider Man Revelations Slot which is a 25 line marvel slot game which has a bonus round where the player has to save a passenger during a transit tussle with Doctor Octopus for the chance to win free spins or multipliers. Dragon Sword where players get to follow the knight into a dark forest in search of his lost sword. Get to battle the dragon in the bonus round to get bonus prizes and a chance to win 6000x your bet! For Blackjack Players there is a new version of Atlantic City Blackjack which has extra features such as auto betting and auto strategy features.

Wow! Time flies! It is hard to believe that it is already the 7 January 2009!!!!

All of us at Topboss Group would like to wish our players, advertisers and Affiliate Managers a prosperous and healthy 2009.

Keep checking our blog regularly as we have some exciting plans for the coming year and we will regularly post various casino specials and any gambling titbits we find of interest.

We will all be back in the office on the 12 January so feel free to email us or give us a call.

J Todd from APCW does a rather funny report on the latest in the Party Gaming case and a recap on the Grand Prive Affiliates theft of affiliate commissions