Recent research has shown that a warning slogan that has been aired along with gambling adverts hardly does anything to lessen the amount which punters place as bets.
The study, which has been carried out by experts at the University of Warwick aimed at measuring the effect of the responsible gambling message of the British gambling sector “When the fun stops, stop”. Unfortunately, the academics who were engaged in the research found that there was hardly any considerable effect on people’s gambling behaviour. In addition, experts did not find it appropriate that the word “fun” is written in a larger font in comparison to the other words in the slogan, which is supposed to promote responsible gambling behaviour.
As part of their study, analysts from the psychology department of the University of Warwick addressed Premier League fans who also had placed sports betting and asked them to place small bets after viewing gambling adverts, some of which displayed the slogan and some of which did not. A total of 506 people took part in the survey.
What researchers found was that players who had encountered the responsible gambling message tend to wager more often than the ones who had not seen the slogan.
Changes to the Warning Message Could Be Brought Soon
Even though the difference between the two groups of people was not large enough to prove that the responsible gambling message is inefficient, the analysts concluded that the slogan did not reach its goal to encourage British punters be more responsible when it comes to their gambling.
Gillian Wilmot, the Chair of Senet Group that is responsible for releasing the responsible gambling message, commented that the slogan had substantially raised the awareness of the link between problem gambling and poor emotional states and made young men take into consideration their behaviour at a time when gambling has become a popular pastime. Ms Wilmot has also explained that it was never the regulators’ intention to fully discourage all bets but to get British gamblers to stop for a moment and reflect on their gambling behaviour and the possible consequences.
However, Senet Group’s boss shared that the Group was thinking about a possible upgrade of the slogan, including a change in the font size of the word “fun”. Ms Wilmot reminded that in 2018, the Senet Group was the one that commissioned a campaign’s review, informed by a large behavioural study, and the eventual changes which are to be brought to the slogan would reflect a change to the size of the word “fun” following some feedback on the matter.
One of the researchers who presented the report, Dr Lukasz Walasek, commented on the campaign and the gambling advert warning labels, saying that the campaign is aimed at encouraging local players to be more responsible about their gambling behaviour. Dr Walasek further explained that such a study could hardly serve as evidence to suggest what the efficiency of such labels is.
In the future, the warning is possible to appear less often on TV since the local gambling industry agreed to release a voluntary ban on gambling advertising during live sports events following rising concerns about the negative impact which expanded gambling advertising could have on underage and vulnerable individuals.
- Author
Daniel Williams
