The UK government is coming under fire this week for ‘stepping back’ from a ban on gambling advertising, in what it claims to be an ‘evidence-led’ retreat.
The revelations came after the minister for sport, gambling and civil society Stuart Andrew told MPs that there was “little evidence” that exposure to gambling advertisements caused related addictions, although he admitted that ‘more research’ was needed.
“We have very much gone on the evidence [and] there’s little evidence that exposure to advertising alone causes people to enter into gambling harm. Once we have the research if there’s more evidence that proves advertising is causing harm then we will look at that,” Andrew said.
The government appears to be at odds with the wider medical profession, which for the most part believes that there is a direct link between the widespread prevalence of gambling ads and rising levels of associated gambling disorders in recent years.
“The evidence is clear that gambling advertising drives consumption, which increases harm,” consultant psychologist and head of the NHS Northern Gambling Service Dr Matt Gaskell told The Guardian.
Subscribe to Marketing Beat for free
Sign up here to get the latest broadcast advertising news sent straight to your inbox each morning
“This is well known internationally, and as a result many European countries have taken action to protect their communities with stringent advertising curbs. Our children, young people, and those experiencing harm or in recovery continue to be exposed to ubiquitous gambling advertising, and the government have chosen to expose them to harm.”
It is thought that a lack of funding across the board is currently limiting the ability of various bodies to conduct thorough and robust research into the correlation, with a significant portion of UK-based research paid for by the industry-funded body GambleAware.
Despite these limitations, a wide-ranging study published in the Public Health journal earlier this year found that although there was an “absence of definitive controlled studies…the substantial and consistent evidence base supports restrictions to reduce exposure to gambling advertising.”
Andrew added that a new regulatory regime was due to be in place by summer 2024, saying: “We need greater research to understand this important piece of work. We want to have much better research and evidence and where research shows that there is more work needing to be done in an area, we will be more than happy to do that.”
The news follows the decision of Premier League football clubs to ban front-of-shirt gambling sponsorships from 2026 amid concerns that prevalence of such brands within the sport had led to a gambling addiction ‘epidemic’ among fans.
