March 30, 2007

Lose your house, family and mates with 888

This side banner is part of a campaign that caught my eye last night. There's a much more colourful poster from 888.com encouraging us to "Go Crazy" on their online BlackJack site plastered inside the trains on my route home. I thought the timing a little odd, bearing in mind the current arguments over our government's determination to foist supercasinos on us.
I've railed against many ads before, but this campaign is the worst I've seen for a long time. It's bloody irresponsible, and the fuckwits who dreamt it up should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves.
I'm speaking from experience, being a regular online poker player, although I tend to stick to poker and usually do very well because I am competing against other people, not a computer program.
I've tried online BlackJack - aka Pontoon or 21 - and it's a simple game with the odds (like all odds when it's you vs the casino) stacked against you. It's also easy to lose quickly and very tempting to throw bigger stakes into the pot to try and recuperate your losses. It's addictive and after playing one round and realising I was down $10 within three minutes, I demanded that my access to non-poker tables be switched off.
Going "a little crazy" on BlackJack is a terrible encouragement to throw caution to the wind. There's no way you'll win with an attitude like that. You will lose, heavily.

2 comments:

David said...

I think you exaggerate a little bit. I don't think that this ad is so bad. It attracts the people to gamble at 888.com. I'm sure that other online casinos advertise themselves in similar ways. If a person want to gamble he will do it anyway. The question is is in which site...

SchizoFishNChimps said...

Thanks for your comment David, but as someone who has played Blackjack (the subject of this particular campaign) both online and in casinos, my ire is directed at the concept of "going crazy", which I interpret at playing recklessly and betting too highly ("going on tilt", as card players call it) in an attempt to recoup lost stakes.
I'm sure other online casinos do advertise in similar ways, but this is the first time I've seen language that could be interpreted as an incentive to play badly used for a casino.