Mesmerised and ensnared: the wild west of gambling advertising
“Relentless and insidious marketing tactics are drawing people into the grip of gambling addiction, with devastating impacts on vulnerable individuals. It's time to confront the unchecked spread of this harmful advertising."
By Rabia | Illustrations by Olivia Juett
Shiny, targeted ads are fast becoming the preferred tool within the diverse range of tactics used by the gambling industry to suck players into the gambling quicksand. Insidious methods like ‘sludging’ ( a term used to describe obstacles that prevent people from making good decisions) are used to keep the players tied in by making it difficult to leave; whether it's not being able to unsubscribe from marketing, close an account, or make withdrawals from gambling accounts.
Unfettered by the constraints of fixed hours of traditional gambling premises, one can now lose money over protracted periods of the day: like the Martini advert said; ‘any-time any-place any-where.’
The why...
I sat down one cold winter evening looking forward to a quiet night in watching TV. I found myself captivated by a torrent of gambling adverts. They were relentless: mesmerising flashes of light, vibrant outfits, elated young people enacting energetic moves dominated every commercial break. It was hypnotic to the point that, even as a non-gambler, these ads overshadowed what I had actually sat down to watch.
If I could feel overwhelmed, this must surely have a powerful triggering effect on those struggling to resist the seductive allure of such enticing feel-good advertisements. I spoke to Cat Cochrane, who has been in gambling recovery for over two years. Cat has strong feelings about the pressures of advertising and, having lived experience, she was able to give me an ‘inside’ perspective:
“I’ve got to the point where I don’t watch commercial TV channels due to the amount of advertising found on programmes and films. There isn’t any given day when a gambling ad doesn’t pop up… Even if someone is in a good place in their recovery, TV gambling ads could still trigger something. There are no trigger warnings and they can be seen early afternoons through to night, seven days a week.”
The reality of gambling adverts on TV
Subsequently, I undertook a random three-hour survey of all gambling adverts during every commercial break between approximately 9.15pm and 12.15am. I was appalled; I counted 24 adverts in that relatively short time; at least two were aired in every commercial break. After 11pm, as many as four gambling adverts were aired during each break.
The intensity of gambling adverts flooding our TV screens is inescapable with ads even being aired early in the mornings. The reality of gambling advertising, I discovered, was even worse than I had anticipated.
Gambling advertising, the background
The Gambling Act 2005 removed previous restrictions on advertising for many gambling products. Britain is now at a crossroads where gambling ads are proliferating on an exponential scale – threatening to potentially overwhelm the cultural and societal direction of the current youth and severely impact upon future generations’ wealth and mental health. Pandora’s box is wide open.
Gambling marketing spend breakdown from 2017
£747million: Direct online internet marketing costs –almost half (48 percent) of total gambling marketing spend
£301million: Advertising through marketing ‘affiliates’ – websites, tipsters and publications who earn a commission for generating new business for the gambling companies – nearly one fifth (19 percent ) of total expenditure
£234million: TV gambling advertising –15 percent of total gambling marketing spend
£149m: Social media – more than tripling over three years, 10 percent of total gambling marketing spend
£60m: Sponsorship –, double the amount spent in 2014 (£30m).
It is estimated that gambling advertising spend is likely to mushroom to over £48 billion by 2027.
How big a problem is it?
On a worldwide scale, a report by the Lancet Public Health Commission on gambling published in 2024, found that 46.2 percent of adults and 17.9 percent of adolescents had participated in any form of gambling within the previous year. While 5.5 percent of women and 11.9 percent of men experience any type of gambling harm. This means approximately 448.77 million adults could be affected globally of which potentially 80 million adults experiencing more severe consequences classified as gambling disorder or problematic gambling.
The conflation of gambling with gaming has lit a fuse with the expansion in online gambling superseding other forms, there are estimates that ‘the gross online gambling yield (the amount lost by consumers) will grow to US$205 billion by 2030; gambling yield for all forms of commercial gambling is projected to grow to nearly $700 billion by 2028.’ Social media is also an issue with 16 percent of adults admitting to following or interacting with gambling companies on any social media or video sharing platform, most commonly Facebook.
Figures from the Gambling Commission suggest that 1.3 million people in the UK could have a gambling problem. It is no surprise then that in 2023, approximately 23.6 million (approximately two-fifths of the adult population) spent money on gambling in one day alone. The government-sanctioned lotteries including the National lottery and scratch cards are the most prevalent form of gambling.
Why does it matter?
While some may see gambling as a harmless diversion away from the humdrum and stresses of daily living, the problem is not gambling per se but ‘problem gambling’. A significant subset of all gamblers, totalling hundreds of thousands, experience gambling harms. Males are more likely to feature among this subset as are those who engage in multiple gambling activities, gamble late at night, those with mental health issues and people with the highest gambling expenditure.
The most recent Gambling Commission Report from July 2024 indicates that contrary to previous figures, 2.5 percent of people in the UK experience ‘problem gambling’ – an eight-fold rise. It also states that 2.8 percent of those who have gambled in the previous 12 months have experienced harms.
These can include harms not only directly through financial loss but domestic violence, breakdown in relationships and crime. An Australian study found that 40-60 percent of people with problem gambling have reported suicidal ideation and about one in five suicidal attempts is related to gambling harm.
Photo of gambling awareness ad in a bookies by John Bowden
Public perception
Gamble Aware and Ipsos data revealed that 67 percent of the public feel there is currently too much advertising related to gambling, and over 70 percent indicated a preference for more regulations on both social media and TV adverts.
Research from September 2024 showed that over one weekend alone Premier League fans faced a deluge of almost 30,000 gambling messages – a 165 percent increase from 2023.
The science
Several reviews have assessed the impact of product and brand advertising and gambling marketing on behaviours. Collectively, they have suggested that exposure to gambling advertising and marketing is positively correlated with gambling behaviour and gambling intentions; there is evidence of a dose–response relationship and that exposure to marketing promotes high-risk gambling behaviours.
Who regulates advertising?
It is Ofcom who ‘considers complaints about the content of programmes, including trailers for a broadcaster’s own programmes and programme sponsorship credits… and also sets rules related to the identification, amount and placements of adverts around programmes’.
The gambling industry self-regulates through UK Advertising Codes issued by the Committees of Advertising Practice (CAP) and administered by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). But it also funds the ASA/CAP – the bodies responsible for its regulation.
The Culture, Media and Sport Committee found that this suggests a conflict of interest relative to restrictions and bans on gambling marketing practices which may negatively impact the funders themselves and is of concern.
Once you learn that gambling companies spend millions upon millions on hospitality and nine MPs are reported to have accepted free Euro 2020 tickets from gambling companies, the tactics deployed seem self-evident.
Why do gambling adverts continue to proliferate?
So why is more not done in the UK to protect the current and future generations from this looming public health crisis? Well, there is big money in gambling. The total annual gross gambling yield of the UK gambling industry from April 2023-March 2024) was a staggering £15.6 billion.
The UK government’s purported aim ‘to balance gambling harms with commercial freedoms’ is pivotal to the relative absence of statutory regulation. Advertising is not being curbed on the basis of the Gambling Industry’s claims that a direct and causal connection between gambling and marketing) has not been substantiated.
According to the Lancet report, the gambling industry’s symbiosis with the sporting industry has created a powerful juggernaut in the ‘commercial gambling ecosystem’. Even the government has latched onto and run with the notion that “there's little evidence that exposure to advertising alone causes people to enter into gambling harm”, according to minister for sport, gambling and civil society, Stuart Andrew.
No surprise then that despite the UK having the strongest volume of evidence underpinning the contrary, marketing restrictions are generally less strict than within some of our comparator neighbours.
The potential costs to society
Costs associated with problematic gambling in the UK are estimated at around £1.4 billion, but this does not take into account secondary knock-on effects through impact on family or society. The Department of Health has found that there are possibly between 117 and 496 suicides related to gambling each year in England alone.
This is only the tip of the iceberg and could potentially lead to seismic changes to the trajectory of our society. The consequences are yet to be fully realised.
Coalition to End Gambling Ads (CEGA)
All is not yet lost. Will Prochaska, director of the Coalition to End Gambling Ads (CEGA) said:
“The WHO recently came out in support of ending all gambling advertising, and the leading public health institutions in the UK have chosen to join the Coalition to End Gambling Ads – so there can be no question that if the government wants to take a public health approach to gambling they will need to restrict gambling ads… We all need to work together to send a clear message to the government that communities want an end to gambling ads as a way to reduce gambling harm,”
If you want to take an active part, head to CEGA’s website where you can find further information and join this call to action by writing to your MP.
Final thoughts
It feels like we are teetering on the brink of a Public Health crisis; a tsunami wave of gambling harms is rising to a swell before our eyes.
As Zoe Osmond, CEO of GambleAware said: “Do we remain passive onlookers during the onslaught of a gambling pandemic which sows seeds of harm in its wake, with a predilection for the more vulnerable strata of society?”
Or do we act?