A new study conducted on behalf of GambleAware suggests that the British public is very supportive of more restrictions on gambling advertisements in their country. The study, titled Ipsos research explores barriers to opening up about experiencing problems with gambling found that 74 percent of the population would support more restrictions on gambling ads on social media; while 72 percent would support more restrictions on television advertising.
According to the study, which was released this week and surveyed the opinions of 4,207 British adults, provided a unique insight as to how advertising really impacts the public. In a good new/bad news situation, a full quarter of respondents who had gambled in the last 12 months reported that they were motivated by a gambling-related advertisement. Unfortunately, that number skyrocketed to 79 percent when the survey focused only those respondents who showed signs of problem gambling.
Over saturation has always been a problem for gambling operators and GambleAware’s survey seemed to bear out that challenge in some detail. According to GambleAware, 67 percent of consumers think that there are just too many casino and sports betting ads in their media. For reasons that are not clear, only 61 percent of those surveyed were opposed to gambling logos on football jerseys.
GambleAware chief executive Zoë Osmond summed up the results of the survey saying, “Exposure to gambling advertising normalises gambling and makes it seem like just ‘harmless fun’ without showing the risks of gambling addiction and harm. This is why we have published our new report, to call on the next government to do more to regulate gambling advertising, particularly around sport where children and young people can see it.”
Whether these results have any impact where it matters, with lawmakers and gaming regulators, remains to be seen.