GambleAware has urged UK authorities to take urgent action against the prevalence of gambling advertising.
The organisation is also calling on the UK’s new statutory gambling harms commissioner to build on a recently concluded three-year campaign by the organisation, titled Let’s Open Up About Gambling, to reduce stigma around gambling harms.
Run between April 2023 and May 2025, the campaign featured advertising, media campaigns and partnerships with relevant organisations.
According to GambleAware, over 90% of the initiative’s target audience took action to seek help for gambling harm, while two in five also said they had a conversation about gambling harm.
Emma Munro-Faure, GambleAware’s director of marketing, said: “We’re proud that this campaign helped thousands of people to seek support for gambling harms. But stigma remains a major barrier, and with gambling companies spending £2 billion a year on advertising, we need stronger restrictions and clearer signposting to the free help and support available. ”
Despite the touted success of the campaign work, the charity is now calling for further restrictions on gambling advertising, including the addition of health warnings on all advertising and greater signposting to where people can get help.
As part of the introduction of a statutory levy on operators in the UK, GambleAware has been replaced as chief commissioner of research, prevention and treatment of gambling harms by the NHS, leading to the charity’s planned closure on 31 March.
GambleAware has called on the new commissioners to run similar campaigns to build on the success of its initiative and take a public health approach to reducing gambling harms.
“This activity was cut short due to the planned closure of GambleAware in light of a new statutory commissioning system,” wrote Alexia Clifford, chief communications officer at GambleAware, in a foreword to the report.
“Based on the impact we have seen from the first three bursts, this campaign has achieved a great deal, but more work needs to be done. Future efforts should continue to encourage those experiencing harm to open up and seek support, but also to tackle the tougher objective of shifting broader societal perceptions of those experiencing harm.”
GambleAware has consistently voiced the need for advertising reform in the UK, as Clifford emphasised that advertising spend by gambling companies has increased from £1.5bn to £2bn since 2017.
Among these include the calls for the UK Government to produce safer gambling video guidelines after research discovered that campaigns such as Top Tips For Positive Play by William Hill and Made To Play Safely by 888 ads had “backfire effects” and led to a significant increase in click-through rates compared to the control.
Meanwhile, the charity has also demanded action to combat gambling adverts being seen by young people, as it branded the current environment as “unacceptable”.
Advertising will no doubt be high on the agenda as UK authorities seek to achieve a “smooth and stable transition”, however, concerns still remain regarding the implementation of the statutory levy.
Last week, Louie French, Conservative MP and shadow minister for gambling, called on the government during a during a Westminster Hall debate on gambling harms for young people to “get their act together and engage with the sector so that a real, working solution can be put in place” as uncertainty remains surrounding the level of funding third sector charities such as Gordon Moody will receive.
Jim Shannon, DUP MP for Strangford in Northern Ireland, added: “[Charities] are facing a cliff edge, with no clarity as to whether they will be in receipt of funding after that time. Gordon Moody has already had to ration its service, and it faces the possibility of further limiting the people it treats. I urge the Government to move quickly and to provide the interim funding for the next 12 months, while the long-term NHS funding frameworks are finalised.”
For now, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport has urged such charities to apply for funding, but any potential gaps in financing risk exacerbating the issues uncovered during campaigns such as the one run by GambleAware.
