New rules for gambling ads are announced in the UK and licensed operators will not be able to use popular celebrities among minors in gambling commercials.
Gambling ads will no longer be allowed to feature athletes or celebrities who are well known among minors.
The UK Committee for Advertising Practice (CAP) has announced the introduction of new rules on gambling advertising, which it says are aimed at protecting young people and vulnerable audiences.
The impact of these new rules is huge for gambling advertisers who want to promote their brands using prominent athletes and celebrities or influencers on social networks that attract young people under 18 years of age.
Thus, the new rules state that gambling and lottery ads must not “be likely to be very attractive to children or young people, especially by reflecting on or being associated with youth culture”.
The new “strong” attraction test bans content (images, themes, and characters) that has a strong level of appeal to young people under the age of 18, no matter how it is viewed by adults.
In practice, this will significantly restrict the images and references that gambling ads will be able to use. CAP said this should reduce the potential for gambling ads to attract the attention of young people under 18. Gambling ads will not be able to use:
- Top football players and sports stars with a considerable following among under-18 on social media.
- All sportspeople are well-known to under-18s, including sportspeople with a considerable volume of under-18 followers on social media.
- References to video game content and gameplay popular with under-18s.
- Stars from reality shows that are popular with under-18s, such as Love Island.
The rules will come into effect on October 1.
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Mr. Shahriar Coupal, CAP director declared that “The days of gambling ads featuring sports stars, video game imagery, and other content of strong appeal to under-18s are numbered. By ending these practices, our new rules invite a new era for gambling ads, more particular to the adult audience they can target and more befitting of the age-restricted product they’re promoting.”
“In October 2020, CAP launched a consultation to respond to GambleAware’s Final Synthesis Report: The impact of gambling marketing and advertising on children, young people, and vulnerable adults. The findings of this report indicated that regulatory changes would help continue to protect under-18s from gambling-related advertising harms.
“Our gambling advertising rules have always placed a particular emphasis on protecting young and vulnerable people and we will continue to review our rules, policies, and guidelines to make sure that they are effective.”, was added by CAP in a statement just released.
The new Ad Rules are welcomed by the Betting and Gaming Council
The Betting and Gaming Council, the gambling industry lobby group, has welcomed the changes and again stressed the commitment of licensed operators to responsible gambling.
CEO Michael Dugher said: “The BGC supports these changes not least because they build on a whole range of measures, we have led in recent times to drive up standards and ensure further protections in advertising.
“In 2019, BGC members introduced the whistle-to-whistle ban on TV betting commercials during live sport before the 9 pm watershed, which led to the number of such ads being seen by young people at that time falling by 97%. Our members also introduced new age gating rules on advertising on social platforms, restricting the ads to those aged 25 and over for most sites.
“It is worth remembering that according to the Gambling Commission, the proportion of young people who gambled in a previous seven-day period fell from 23% in 2011 to 11% in 2019. The most popular forms of betting by young people are playing cards, scratchcards, bets between friends, and fruit machines – not with BGC members. The BGC takes a zero-tolerance approach to gambling by those under the age of 18 and we enforce the toughest possible action.
“The regulated betting and gaming industry is determined to promote safer gambling and greater customer protection – unlike the unsafe and growing online black market, which has none of the safeguards that apply and will apply to BGC members.”
GambleAware, the industry-supported responsible gambling charity, also welcomed the changes. Its research contributed to the decision to introduce the new measures.
Chief executive Zoe Osmond said: “We are pleased to see this proactive measure to protect under-18s from exposure to gambling adverts. We are also delighted that GambleAware’s research led to these steps being taken. Our research, published in 2020, showed that 94% of 11-17-year-olds in Great Britain had been exposed to gambling adverts in the last month, seeing six adverts on average.
“Nearly two-thirds of this group had seen gambling adverts on social media, while nearly half had seen sports teams, games, or events sponsored by a gambling operator.”
The Conservative’s 2019 election manifesto promised to overhaul gambling laws, following growing concerns over gambling’s impact, especially on the young. After a series of delays a white paper, outlining new regulations is now expected in May.
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