A poster which parodied a famous religious painting to advertise online gambling has been banned after complaints from outraged Christians.

The poster from online gambling firm Paddy Power compared a night at the casino to Leonardo da Vinci's the Last Supper.

Jesus was shown seated behind a stack of gambling chips whilst his apostles amused themselves playing cars or roulette.

The headline informed potential punters that "there's a place for fun and games".

Paddy Power maintained that the advert was intended to be light-hearted way to inform people to log onto their website, paddypower.com for fun and games.

It said as an Irish company it had many devout Catholics within its workforce and did not mean to anger or offend people with religious beliefs.

The online gambling company claimed that their employees and consumer test groups had all responded positively to the advert before it was put into the public domain.

But the Advertising Standards Authority said that replacing Christian imagery with objects used for gambling could cause serious offence.

It upheld public complaints that the poster was offensive and breached taste and decency guidelines.

They consequently told Paddy Power that the advert must not be shown again in public.