Lax standards
In a stunning case of lax professional standards, the UK’s journalism trade body has claimed major UK tabloids are ignorantly publishing fake news stories about lottery winners designed to boost a gambling affiliate’s SEO reach.
publishing the headline-grabbing stories to an audience of millions
According to an investigation by UK body The Press Gazette, The Daily Mail, The Sun, and The Daily Mirror were among the culprits publishing the headline-grabbing stories to an audience of millions without exercising due journalistic diligence.
PR firm Signal the News supplied the stories to the news corporations with SEO links designed to funnel readers to an online casino site.
The Press Gazette claims the articles from the PR firm were not only fictitious, they were strategically designed to win the confidence and attention of the lottery-ticket buying public while directing them to PlayCasino.
Fishy facts
The Gazette’s investigators smelled a rat on multiple levels, starting with a content strategy in which the PR firm submitted stories focusing on lottery winners allegedly “separated from their tickets by some unfortunate twist of fate.”
The trade body claims the stories and their origins are all fishy, and that all lead back to “expert” advice from the iGaming brand on chasing “elusive lottery wins down.”
wrongly advise that winners can’t “claim for lost, stolen, or damaged tickets”
Not only are PlayCasino’s stories allegedly completely fake, but they also wrongly advise that winners can’t “claim for lost, stolen, or damaged tickets in the UK,” reports the Gazette.
The shady stories included a kid who tossed his parents’ winning lottery ticket into a trash can, and a man who “discovered a lottery ticket in a drawer” after the death of his mother.
News firms act
Despite the PR agency asserting the case studies were “authenticated and verified,” Signal the News couldn’t provide contact details for anyone featured in the stories.
While the PR firm has allegedly threatened the trade body with legal action if it made its claims public, several news outlets have already acted and removed Signal the News articles.
