Surely I can’t be the only person who is sick to the back teeth of TV adverts for online casinos and bingo?!? On certain channels, the ad breaks consist entirely of gambling commercials. Do men and women actually sit around the house playing online bingo? Do people really come home from work and the first thing they do is get their phone or tablet out and play online slot machines with big silly smiles on their faces? Who are these people?
Foreign readers probably won’t get this reference but I take particular issue with one particular advert where Ant & Dec are advertising ‘their’ online slot machine. Considering Ant has had a well documented struggle with addiction to prescribed medication and then alcohol, should he really have his name associated with a gambling website? I hope he/they gave their fee to charities which help people with an addiction to gambling.
The TV ads are all bright and bouncy. People are laughing and smiling as they press the buttons and mark off their bingo numbers – it’s sheer joy isn’t it!! No, it isn’t. Just take a walk past any bookmakers and they all look the same. They are cold, stark places populated by sad looking men gazing at wall mounted TVs, gambling away the housekeeping money and dreading going home. There are no sparkly cartoon characters, no dance routines with money falling from the sky.
So, Mr Winstone, as much as I admire your acting achievements, please stop with the gambling ads. The same goes for Pokerstars, 888 Casino, Betfair, William Hill, Foxy Bingo and all the other companies which feed on people in this way – all of you, just leave the planet.