An avalanche of World Cup gambling ads causes concern in the UK

It has been raining goals in the World Cup, especially for England. And it has been raining gambling ads on TV channels that broadcast the World Cup football matches.

It has been found that almost all ad breaks during matches feature at least one gambling advertisement, sometimes two.

Gambling firms themselves expressed concerns over the large number of ads. Still, they see no change to this, the government alters the law. At present, TV channels can show gambling commercials after 9 pm or during live sports broadcast.

Betfred, Skybet, Betfair, BetVictor, Paddy Power, Bet365, William Hill, Ladbrokes and Coral are the biggest advertisers in the commercial break this World Cup.

The research analysed 11 games broadcast on ITV, each game contained six ad breaks. 62 of the 66 breaks contained one or more gambling advertisements.

Future problems

Matt Zarb-Cousin from the Campaign for Fairer Gambling wants gambling advertisements to be restricted during football games.

He said: “I think it’s inappropriate before the watershed because children are seeing them… the response from the public is inevitable and we’re storing up problems from the future.”

Mr Zarb-Cousin was a problem gambler and says his problem was exacerbated by gambling advertisements: “Research from Australia found that children, when they’re watching the football and they see the ads, they think you have to have a bet to enjoy the game. Australia then went on to ban the ads during sporting events.”

Complaints jump

Viewers of the World Cup on ITV have expressed surprise on social media about the amount of gambling advertisements this week, but ITV said there were no more commercials this tournament than in previous ones.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) says they have received complaints this year and they always see a jump in complaints during big sports tournaments.

But the watchdog only upholds complaints about the content of commercials, not the volume of them.

Craig Jones from the ASA said: “The gambling market was liberalised in the mid-2000s, the one area we don’t have control over is the volume of the gambling ads, but where the ASA does kick in is the content and content of the ads.”

Leprechauns and wizards

There are strict rules surrounding gambling advertising. Adverts must not appeal to children, portray gambling as seductive, or suggest gambling can be a solution to financial problems and get you out of debt.

Gambling companies regularly fall foul of the rules. This week the Advertising Standards Authority upheld a complaint against Coral for three games that featured cartoon characters of leprechauns and wizards.

The regulator said the games and marketing materials could appeal to children.

Over the past 12 months Foxy Bingo, William Hill, Ladbrokes, 888, and Casumo have all been fined for breaking advertising rules.

“Widespread unease”

The advertising watchdog recently introduced stricter rules banning gambling companies telling customers to “bet now” and ambiguous offers of free bets.

Craig Jones said: “You used to get kind of, tough guy content in ads where the message was ‘bet now’, ‘these are the odds’, ‘get your bet in quickly.’ We recently toughened the rules because we think that preys on people’s impulse control and anything that trivialises gambling or underplays risk is also the wrong side of the line.”

Some gambling companies say they would like to see restrictions on the amount of gambling advertising shown on television.

William Hill told Radio 4’s You and Yours it would like to see greater controls.

Gillian Wilmot, chairman of the Senet Group, a body set up by bookmakers to address concerns about problem gambling and advertising said: “There is widespread unease in the gambling industry at the volume and density of gambling adverts around live sport, but it is difficult to reduce this in a competitive market unless government decides to act.”

The Department for Culture Media and sport said: “We have set out a package of measures to strengthen rules around gambling advertising.”

“This includes responsible gambling messages appearing on screen throughout gambling ads and a multi-million pound campaign that will promote responsible gambling to be launched later this year. There are strict controls in place to ensure children are not targeted by gambling adverts.”

Source: BBC