The UK gambling regulatory body has published the results of recent research, revealing that 34% of local gamblers admitted they have been affected by advertising.
The research, in which a total of 6,258 people took part in March, June, September and December 2020, including 4,566 who claimed to have placed beds in the past 12 months, found that so-called free bet offers were the second most common driving factor that made people gamble, after general advertising that was the main driver of their gambling.
When it comes to the different forms of advertising associated with British residents’ gambling, television was the one that was most viewed, with 76% of the survey participants saying they accessed the most gambling ads via TV. Social media was second, with 86% of the people who participated in the research accessing gambling adverts there. As a whole, the survey found that more than two-thirds of the people (85%) had seen gambling sponsorships or advertising materials.
Furthermore, although TV adverts remain the most prevalent form of advertising, only 15% of British gamblers said they recognise it as a significant factor that affected their decision to place bets. The same number of poll respondents said social media was the most prevalent form of gambling advertising.
Gambling Ads on TV and Social Media Reach Most of UKGC Survey Respondents
According to feedback gathered during the research, a decline in the figures registered in 2019 was registered. The research showed that most of the respondents (87%) had seen gambling advertising materials or sponsorships, with 86% of them accessing gambling ads, and 82% seeing sponsorships.
At the same time, gambling advertisements published in newspapers or placed on billboards or posters across the country, were recognised as the main driver for gambling by only 7% of the people who took part in the survey, despite such gambling advertising materials have been viewed by 45% and 56% of the survey respondents, respectively.
Last but not least, the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) asked the participants in its survey whether and how ads had affected their gambling habits. More than half of the people who had placed a bet in the previous 12 months (52.8%) revealed that the amount of money they normally spend on betting has not been changed in any way due to gambling advertising. However, 16.3% of the respondents revealed that the ads actually had a negative effect on their gambling expenditures, causing them to increase. An additional 13% of the survey respondents said gambling ads pushed them to start gambling, while almost 15% of the interviewed people said viewing gambling adverts made them start gambling again after staying away from the practice for a while.
The UKGC has unveiled the results of the survey at a time when the UK Government is still reviewing the 2005 Gambling Act as part of the efforts to make the piece of legislation more suitable for the purposes of the contemporary gambling environment in the country.
- Author
Daniel Williams
