The Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) has joined forces with the largest online platforms and established a cross-industry Ad Tech Forum to make a further effort in using the latest technology developments to ensure further protection for underage and vulnerable people on the Internet.
As revealed by the trade body of the UK gambling sector, the cross-industry effort includes a number of members of the BGC, such as bet365, Flutter Entertainment and William Hill, as well as the Lotteries Council and some members of the Advertising Association.
Under the agreement, the leading technology platforms Google, Meta, Twitter and Snap are set to offer their input into the forum, along with advertising bodies, with the participants set to work in collaboration and develop new strategies aimed at providing further protection for children online. Their efforts will also be aimed at finding ways to use data in a way that would improve age accuracy in the sector.
The engagement has been confirmed by the Chief Executive Officer of the BGC, Michael Dugher, who shared how happy he was that the Betting and Gaming Council had been able to coordinate the Ad Tech Forum initiative because protecting vulnerable people and children from possible gambling-related harm was among the paramount priorities of the sector that is currently being represented by the body. Mr Dugher further noted that since its establishment a couple of years ago, the BGC had been constantly working to boost the standards in the sector and promote safer gambling.
UK Gambling Operators Further Engage with Underage Customer Protection
According to data provided by the UK Gambling Commission, the proportion of young people who participate in any form of gambling available in the country has been reduced by more than 10%, from 23% in 2011 to 11% in 2019. The major gambling regulatory body in the UK also revealed that the main forms of gambling young Brits get involved with are usually private bets with friends, card games, scratchcards, and so-called fruit machines. According to the 2019 Young People and Gambling report, these types of gambling are currently not offered by the members of the BGC.
The regulated gambling and betting industry in the UK has been determined to follow the authorities’ recommendations and engage further in raising standards across the sector and promoting safer gambling to local customers.
The members of the Betting and Gaming Council have already taken major steps to protect underage individuals. They have adopted new rules aimed to make sure that children are not targeted by gambling adverts on their favourite football clubs’ official accounts on social media. On the other hand, technology platforms are still deploying aggressive advert targeting in order to make sure underage individuals are unable to access gambling ads.
The Ad Tech Forum is expected to build on the commitments made by the UK gambling companies in the Sixth Industry Code for Socially Responsible Advertising. Under the provisions of the aforementioned code, gambling operators in the country are required to make sure that all of their sponsored or paid adverts on social media target only people over the age of 25 unless they are able to prove that adverts meet a standard of age targeting that an agreed third party verifies.
Furthermore, under the Code, gambling ads that appear on search engines are required to make clear that the products they promote are only available for persons over the age of 18. Also, the adverts themselves must feature messages promoting safer gambling.
- Author
Olivia Cole
