Ministers Want Gambling Ad Ban In Sport to Replace ‘Not Fit for Purpose’ Regulation

A number of influential government ministers have called for gambling brands to be banned from advertising in sport.

Members of the Gambling Reform All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) told a Westminster summit last week that the regulation surrounding betting ads was ‘no longer fit for purpose’ in the digital age.

Reform is the only way, claim the APPG, for children and young people to be protected from consuming gambling ads on television, radio and social media.

And one method of overhauling the legislative framework would be to ban bookmakers and casinos from advertising in professional sport – albeit with a couple of exceptions.

Decisive Action

The debate, the transcript of which has been published in full on the parliamentary Hansard platform, saw the APPG call for an end to gambling sponsorship in sport alongside a mandated 9pm pre-watershed ban on all forms of betting advertising.

Alex Ballinger, the Labour MP for Halesowen and the co-chair of the gambling reform group, commented that current codes of conduct – such as the ‘whistle to whistle’ ban on ads displayed during live football games – were insufficient in providing the levels of protection required.

“Children today are growing up in an environment where gambling is normalised at every turn, on their screens, in sport and across social media.

“We cannot allow this level of exposure to continue unchecked. Protecting children must come first… and that means taking decisive action to reduce the scale and reach of gambling advertising.”

However, under APPG proposals, both horse racing and greyhound racing would be exempt from any gambling sponsorship ban. That’s because, as per Ballinger, these events are heavily reliant on ad revenue from betting firms and are ‘not generally attended’ by those under the age of 18.

The prohibition would mostly impact football, with gambling advertising commonly seen on kits, advertising hoardings and on stadium concourses. In the Premier League, a voluntary ban on front-of-shirt betting sponsorships will come into force in August.

Opponents of APPG, who include Louie French MP, spoke of the role played by the Advertising Standards Authority in regulating gambling ads in the UK. French also quoted a statistic that claimed that the number of adverts seen by children had been reduced by 97% after the introduction of the whistle-to-whistle ban.

The Commons debate played out against the backdrop of a seismic report published by World Advertising Research Center last week, which revealed that black market operators are set to overtake licensed firms for ad spending by 2028 – with more than £1 billion expected to be spent by the illegal sector this year alone.

Watershed Moment

Currently, gambling operators are allowed to advertise their products before the 9pm watershed under strict conditions.

However, the ministers associated with the APPG want all gambling ads to be banned before that time in a bid to reduce the chance of young people seeing them.

The veto would apply to all channels, including TV, radio and social media, and would likely cost betting brands millions in revenue annually.

The UK watershed, introduced back in the 1960s, is designed to prevent children from consuming ‘harmful’ content. It places a block on all such media from 9pm at night until 5:30am in the morning – back in January, the government introduced a pre-watershed ban on junk food ads.

The APPG’s recommendations also call for the end of gambling sponsorships of popular pre-watershed TV programmes, such as I’m a Celebrity, while influencers and content creators would also be barred from promoting betting on their respective channels.