Pizza Hut is in hot water after its online UK customers received messages offering them up to 300 free online casino spins for placing orders. [Image: Shutterstock.com]

Pizza Hut is under fire for a promotion offering free spins for people getting takeout. Anyone placing online orders in the UK received a message saying they unlocked up to 300 free spins without any deposit requirement at their favorite online casino.

pizza chain was running the campaign in collaboration with Free Spins Loopy

The Texas-based pizza chain was running the campaign in collaboration with Free Spins Loopy, which specializes in marketing online casinos.

Talking to The Guardian about the messaging, prominent anti-gambling advocate Annie Ashton criticized the campaign that provided free spins for “highly addictive casino games while not knowing if those people may be in recovery from an addiction is not just careless, it’s dangerous.”

Explaining the appearance of the free spins promotion on Pizza Hut, Free Spins Loopy’s controlling company Digital Adventures explained the ad’s placement was due to “an external programmatic network.” It removed the ad on November 28 after it was live for a short time.