The Last Supper of Poker and Roulette

With online poker going strong and Da Vinci code heading big screen, I thought a post on both poker and Da Vinci would be a great read. And guess what I found!

An advertising campaign by Irish bookmaker, Paddy Power, was stopped after a series of complaints from outraged Christians.

Now, what can this Irish bookmaker do to engineer quite an uproar?

Bastardize the ‘’Last Supper,’’ even if it IS a version of one of Christianity’s biggest enemies, (Well… Since his Da Vinci Code at least…) Leonardo Da Vinci.

Apparently, the advertising campaign features Da Vinci’s painting and then spoofs it. It shows Jesus Christ gambling with his apostles on one long table. Heck, the advertising campaign even has the Holy Grail in it. (The woman beside what was suppose to be Jesus Christ.)

Paddy Power said they received more than a hundred complaints, making it the most they had about basically anything in the past.

Well… At least you get traffic huh?

The billboard posters, emblazoned with the slogan ‘’There’s a place for fun and games,’’ adapted Leonardo Da Vinci’s famous painting of the event to show Jesus with a stack of poker chips and other apostles playing cards and roulette. - MSNBC

Frank Goodman, chief executive of the Advertising Standards Authority, was not impressed. He said that the advertising campaign violated guidelines regarding taste, decency and religion.

He said, ‘’There’s also a general provision that ads should contain nothing that is likely to cause grave or widespread offense, this apparently has caused widespread offense.’’



Yeah. Ya’ think?