UK to Ban the Use of Celebrities in Gambling Adverts

The use of celebrities, such as sports personalities, social media influencers, and reality TV stars in advertisements promoting betting and gambling is expected to be prohibited under the new regulations that are aimed at clamp down on ads that target youngsters under the age of 18.

These new gambling ad guidelines have been put forth by the Committees of Advertising Practice (CAP), a non-governmental British organization responsible for the regulation and setting the code of practice for the non-broadcast advertising (e.g. print and online) industry. According to a recent publication by The Guardian, the proposed regulations would effectively ban recent gambling advertisements that have featured high-profile English football (soccer) celebrities including Harry Redknapp, Michael Owen, and José Mourinho, who have a long history of endorsing gambling content.

What Do the Current Rules Say About Gambling Ads?

Right now, a gambling advertisement can only be banned if it has the potential to appear more appealing to youngsters than to adults over 18 years old. Should the planned regulatory changes take effect, a gambling advertisement will be banned automatically if it appeals to under 18s irrespective of how the adult population may view the advert.

The CAP has already commenced the process of consultation with the public to maul over the new advertising measures and clarified that the proposed rules will significantly impact ads that feature prominent sports personalities and public figures as well as reality Television stars from popular shows like Love Island and even social media influencers. The CAP further clarified with an example citing that a gambling ad that features the England football captain for instance would be banned under the new guidelines.

On the flip side, advertisements that use personalities that aren’t meaningfully resonant with youngsters for example Ray Winstone, a popular figure used to front numerous Bet365 adverts, wouldn’t be affected under CAP’s new regulations. The public consultation period will be open until the 22nd of January 2021.

Why is the CAP Moving to Change the Advertising Rules?

The move to introduce more controls in the gambling advertising industry was inspired by a recent study that was commissioned by GambleAware, UK’s leading autonomous grant-making charity organization that fights against gambling harm. According to the said report, the creative content promoted in gambling ads has a bigger potential to appeal and affect youngsters than was previously thought, even though these advertisements may be strictly abiding by UK’s code of conduct for the gambling industry.

In light of the new developments, Shahriar Coupal, the director of CAP said that;

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“The consultation proposes a strengthening of our rules and guidance which will help us in our ongoing work to prevent children, young and other vulnerable people from being harmed or exploited by gambling advertising.

“It responds to valuable research commissioned by GambleAware that has highlighted how gambling ads have more potential than previously understood to adversely impact these audiences – that’s something we take very seriously and that we are aiming to address.”

However, even though several campaign groups have been pushing for a complete ban on gambling ads, the CAP countered by saying that there wasn’t enough evidence to justify a blanket ban.

Additionally, the CAP also steered away from GambleAware’s recommendation to introduce more restrictions on the types of media where gambling advertisements can be promoted. As we speak, gambling and betting advertisements aren’t allowed to be promoted across any media where over 25% of the audience is below the 18 years gambling age restriction, which the CAP considers to be good enough.

Still on advertising, gambling operators licensed in the UK succumbed to the pressure of anti-gambling campaigned groups and submitted to a whistle-to-whistle ban in gambling advertisements in a bid to protect youngsters from excessive exposure to gambling content. The ban starts 5 minutes before the kickoff of live sports events that start before 9:00 pm underage protection hours and ends 5 min after the final whistle.

Based on a BGC commissioned study earlier in June, this whistle-to-whistle ban has lowered the amount of gambling adverts that children see on tv by an impressive 97%!