The UK betting industry came under fire in a parliament debate with politicians calling for stricter regulations.
The UK gambling advertising came under the spotlight in a House of Commons debate yesterday, with the scale, reach, and consequences of the industry scrutinised by MPs.
The debate, brought forward by Labour MP Alex Ballinger, comes as gambling advertising has come under scrutiny across the globe, with a crackdown from the Australian government and a proliferation of illegal adverts across social media platforms leading to increased scrutiny.
“Gambling advertising is everywhere: on our television screens, in our football stadiums, on local radio, on social media, where it is promoted by influencers, and on video games played by children. It is also increasingly sophisticated, targeted and personalised,” Ballinger said.
“Our APPG [All Party Parliamentary Group] report shows that the industry now spends £2bn a year on gambling advertising and marketing, in a deliberate and sustained effort to drive engagement, normalise gambling and grow the market, including by creating future generations of gamblers.
“We must be honest about what that means: greater exposure leads to greater participation, and greater participation leads to more gambling harm. We have heard repeatedly – through research, from clinicians and, most importantly, from those with lived experience – that gambling advertising acts as a trigger. For those trying to stop gambling, it undermines their recovery.”
Proposed changes
The Gambling Commission may soon implement affordability checks – or financial risk assessments (FRAs) – following a pilot scheme beginning in 2024.
“The FRA pilot found that only 3% of all gambling accounts would be subject to an FRA where their losses were significant enough to warrant it, and 97% of checks would be frictionless without any change to customer experience,” confirmed Lilian Greenwood, Labour MP.
This follows a trial of voluntary whistle-to-whistle restrictions, meaning a restriction on gambling ads for five minutes before and after the final whistle of any pre-watershed sports event. This is aimed at protecting children from exposure.
MPs debated stricter regulations, with a recently released report from the All Party Parliamentary Group on Gambling Reform (GRAPPG) and Peers for Gambling Reform (PGR) setting out recommendations for a ban on gambling adverts before the watershed, as well as an end to gambling sponsorship in sport.
Unintended consequences
However, as Conservative MP Charlie Dewhirst argued, there are concerns within the industry that tighter regulation may push customers to the huge unregulated black market of harmful illegal gambling operators.
Just a few years ago, licensed operators accounted for over 80% of the gambling advertising landscape, but new WARC analysis has shown this number is now at roughly 50%, and by 2028, it is expected the majority will be unregulated black market advertisers.
“A lot of this advertising is online in a space that we cannot necessarily regulate, and search engines will bring up these sites with obvious key words,” Dewhirst explained.
“For example, a problem gambler who has been part of GamStop or similar will have access to non-GamStop sites and that will bring up illegal betting sites. There is no way of regulating these particularly easily. That is why we need to be very conscious about what we do to damage our own regulated market.”
The Gambling Commission has argued the FRA pilot has worked “better than expected”, and is set to collaborate further with operators before regulations are introduced in the near future.
