A new report has revealed that children’s exposure to gambling advertisements has dropped by 25% since 2010.
The report, published by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), analysed data collected by the Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board to see how children have been exposed to age-restricted products between 2010 and 2021.
According to the report, children in 2010 saw an average of three gambling ads per week, while in 2021, the number dropped to 2.2 gambling advertisements. The ASA attributes the decline to lower exposure to advertising in general as well as the changing trends in media consumption.
Guy Parker, the Chief Executive of the ASA, said in a statement: “Our latest report confirms the ongoing decline in children’s exposure to ads for age-restricted products, which is what our rules are designed to achieve. But of course, that’s not the full story.
“Children’s media consumption habits are changing significantly, which is why we’re also focused on protecting them online. Later this year, we’ll publish our findings on the ads they are seeing across the internet and social media as part of our zero-tolerance approach to age-restricted ads being served to children.”
The findings have led the ASA, who recently banned a Paddy Power radio ad, to form its 100 Children Report, which will include a panel of 100 11-17 year-olds from across the United Kingdom whose views will be used to take action against advertisements of age-restricted products on children’s websites and social media.
Despite the progress, charity GambleAware has said in response to the report that more needs to be done to prevent underage people from being exposed to gambling advertisements.
Zoë Osmond, the CEO at GambleAware, said to CasinoBeats: “Whilst it is encouraging to see a drop in the number of gambling adverts viewed by children, there is still much more to be done to prevent children and young people being exposed to these ads.
“Unfortunately, children’s exposure to gambling adverts hasn’t fallen at the same rate as children’s overall TV viewing and overall TV advert exposure, which means that gambling adverts are becoming increasingly prominent among the adverts that children do see on TV.”
She added: “By contrast, the much larger reduction in children’s exposure to alcohol adverts shows that reduced exposure is possible. We would welcome further efforts to explore what lessons can be learned from that and applied to gambling advertising.”
