A cross-party House of Lords committee has urged the UK government to ban almost all gambling advertising, marketing and sponsorship “as soon as practicable” and to abandon its objective of growing the sector. The Liaison Committee concluded that a comprehensive advertising ban would be the most effective way to reduce gambling-related harms, after finding that bookmakers, slot machine venues and casinos won $16.9 billion (£12.6 billion) from British customers last year, with up to 1.4 million people identified as having a gambling problem. The Betting and Gaming Council dismissed the findings as “deeply misguided” and warned a ban would benefit unlicensed operators.
A cross-party House of Lords committee has urged the UK government to ban almost all gambling advertising, marketing and sponsorship “as soon as practicable” and to abandon its objective of growing the sector, according to a report published Wednesday.
The House of Lords Liaison Committee concluded that a comprehensive advertising ban would be the most effective way to reduce gambling-related harms, including financial ruin, relationship breakdown and suicide. The committee said the government had been “too passive” in response to an explosion of digital advertising and social media influencers promoting the gambling sector.
According to the report, bookmakers, slot machine venues and casinos won $16.9 billion (£12.6 billion) from customers in Great Britain last year. Official statistics put the number of people with a gambling problem at up to 1.4 million.
The report recommends the government drop the aim of facilitating growth in the gambling sector outright. The committee acknowledged that the proposed ban would shrink the sector but argued this would be offset over the longer term as money previously spent on gambling would be diverted into other parts of the economy.
Lord Foster of Bath, one of the report’s authors, said research estimates that a 10% reduction in gambling spending could raise gross value added by $1.7 billion (£1.25 billion) and create more than 22,000 jobs.
The committee called for gambling operators to be removed from the shirts and training kits of sports teams and from sports grounds and venues entirely. It also recommended strict restrictions on gambling advertising within televised sports broadcasts, including on-demand services. This would go far beyond the industry’s voluntary “whistle to whistle” ban, which only covers the duration of a televised fixture.
The report also calls for comprehensive bans on direct marketing, content marketing and inducements. Among its other recommendations, the committee said all gambling advertising should fall under a single statutory regulator rather than the current split between the Advertising Standards Authority and the Gambling Commission.
The Betting and Gaming Council dismissed the report, arguing that a ban would benefit the illicit market, which would continue advertising regardless. “A blanket advertising ban would remove a key competitive advantage of being licensed and regulated while doing nothing to stop illegal operators targeting British consumers,” BGC chief executive Grainne Hurst said.
The trade body has estimated that half the money now spent advertising gambling to British consumers comes from unlicensed operators, a claim it put to Parliament in April alongside its estimate of illegal Premier League wagering. In evidence to the committee, the BGC cited a World Advertising Research Centre study putting regulated-sector ad spend at roughly $1.5 billion (£1.1 billion) against $1.07 billion to $1.2 billion (£800 million to £900 million) for the unlicensed sector. The BGC said its members would voluntarily cut advertising spend and volume by about 10%.
Vaughan Lewis of Teise Advisory, appearing on the same panel, told the committee that the tighter the restrictions, the greater the leakage to the black market. He estimated illegal online staking at roughly $22.7 billion (£17 billion) this year, doubling within two. He said unlicensed sites market themselves on the absence of know-your-customer checks to attract customers frustrated by compliance requirements in the regulated market.
Foster called the illicit market a “legitimate concern” but said that “should not deflect us from the need to address the harm that is being created by the legal market.” The committee’s own finding was that it had not received strong evidence that an advertising ban would push customers toward the black market. It conceded that establishing a definitive causal link between advertising and harm presents major and intrinsic methodological challenges, but concluded that the government’s demand for causal proof sets a largely unattainable standard.
Gambling minister Baroness Twycross told the committee in June that the government has no plans to legislate on advertising restrictions and is in conversation with the BGC about voluntary measures. She also confirmed the government wants to see the licensed sector grow.
