United States
United Kingdom
Gambling advertisements will be prohibited from appearing on child friendly games and websites.
This recent move was yet another step by the UK government to put a stop to minors being targeted by gambling operators and succumbing to problem gambling.
Bookmakers in the UK are now required to be more responsible in their marketing strategies. They are required to use every strategy and tool possible to make sure that their ads will not appear on websites or pages that are popular with children. Children have a lot of access to the internet these days, a lot of which is unrestricted. The government would like to at least control what these children see on these sites.
Bookmakers are also prohibited from engaging the services of celebrities and social media influencers who look like they are under 25 in their ads. This would mean popular young footballers will no longer be able to see their faces plastered on these gambling promotions. Another rule that will take effect is that bookmakers are also not allowed to use notable fictional characters who are popular with kids to promote any gambling related activities.
According to the Committee on Advertising Practice (CAP), the number of young celebrities appearing on gambling ads was not that many. CAP further posits that the gambling industry knows which celebrities have that youth appeal, and that it is best to avoid them in order to not get in trouble with the regulator.
Advertising Watchdog Ready To Ban Violations
This is not the first move that the gambling watchdog has taken to ban gambling ads that appeal to a younger audience. Recently, they banned gambling ads which appeared on the app of “I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here”.
The advertising regulator had also banned another ad from Coral Interactive. Its reason was that the ad used animated graphics featuring a leprechaun, a pot of gold, and a rainbow. These images would most likely to entice children and hence it was banned. A William Hill ad was also banned in the app MarioKart 8 Trick.
The government has been forced to step up their efforts in putting a stop to problem gambling after a recent UK study that showed 450,000 teenagers aged 11 to 16 regularly gamble. This posed a threat to the younger generation as a professor of behavioural addiction had commented that once these kids had developed the addiction at their young age, it would be much harder for them to stop in the long run.
Authorities are optimistic this new rule would lessen the number of complaints from parents and organizations alike regarding the inappropriate adverts deemed to be appealing to children.
