The APCW uses underage children in their online gambling propoganda

The APCW uses underage children in their online gambling propoganda

The APCW - either the "Association of Professional Casino Webmasters" or "Association of Players, Casinos and Webmasters" after they re-interpreted their acronym in 2006 - is an association of casino affiliate webmasters, now owned by the GPWA.


The APCW produces a twice-weekly video series, "Perspectives Weekly", which presents select online gambling news items. The videos have a heavily pro-industry slant, particularly when discussing the US government's anti-gambling stance.


On 17th July 2009, the APCW produced what was intended as a joke video, using ten or eleven year old children in a mocked-up gambling discussion in a classroom setting. The mock discussion, revealed as such at the end in a one-minute disclaimer, revolved around online gambling payment processors, online poker, the UIGEA, and Befair's move into the US market. Here are some highlights:


"Teacher" addresses the class.




A little boy asks about the UIGEA and online poker.




Anyone heard of Betfair?





Irrespective of the disclaimer tucked away at the end, this was a cheap, tacky and inappropriate episode.


In the first place, underage gambling is illegal. There are good reasons for this - young children do not need encouraging into financial activities they are incapable of understanding.


In the second place, using children for propoganda is questionable at any time, but when the purpose of the propoganda is the promotion of gambling, it crosses the line into unacceptable immorality. And make no mistake about it, these are promotional videos.


In the third place, You Tube is accessed by tens of millions of children on a daily basis. Most are unlikely to get as far as the disclaimer, particularly when the classroom setup is concluded with great finality and children's attention-spans aren't good at the best of times. They will, however, most likely get as far as the mocked-up online payment solutions and online poker discussion, as well as Betfair's successful legal sidestepping of the US regulations.

Children don't always listen to adults, but they are acutely affected by the behaviour of their peers; here, we have a group of ten year olds effectively telling the world that online gambling is good, politicians are all corrupt, Betfair is coming to the US and that horse racing and lotteries are legal.


What a message to be sending out to the future potential customers of the online gambling industry at a time they're at their most impressionable.

And what a message to be sending to the politicians and the country at large: "This is what we are. Let us into your country and this is what we'll do."


Although her comment was made "blind", I agree with this little girl at the end:

I'm very disappointed with you.

Yup.

I suspect there'll be a lot of that going around.

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