Betting firms spent half a billion pounds on TV adverts since 2012 (original) (raw)

Betting firms have spent nearly half a billion pounds on TV adverts since 2012, according to new figures that show a sustained increase in the value of advertising aimed at wooing potential gamblers.

Companies offering sports betting, bingo, online casino games and poker spent £118.5m on TV spots in 2015, compared with £81.2m in 2012, according to the figures compiled for the Guardian by media analysts Nielsen.

The 46% rise in annual spending over the period means the industry has shelled out a combined £456m since 2012. When the £169m spent by lottery firms is taken into account, the figure rises to £631m.

“It’s evident that the gambling industry is feeling the need to up its game,” said Carolyn Harris, the Labour MP for Swansea East who chairs the all-party parliamentary group on fixed-odds betting terminals, sometimes know as the “crack cocaine” of gambling.

She said delegates at a conference on gambling addiction held in Cardiff last month expressed fears about the number of gambling adverts on television. “This could be the effect of the recent European football tournament but it’s a worrying trend nonetheless. Gambling remains a serious social blight in this country but the government still insists on light-touch regulation.”

Figures for 2016 to date show that £51.4m had been spent on TV gambling ads by the end of May, putting the industry on course for a record £123.4m if the trend continues. In practice, the figure is likely to be even higher as bookmakers seek to capitalise on a frenzy of betting linked to the Euro 2016 football tournament and the EU referendum.

The research suggests the amount of TV advertising promoting gambling has continued to grow unabated since the Gambling Act came into force in 2007. The act, introduced by Tony Blair’s administration, opened the door to adverts for sports betting, online casinos and poker. Previously, only ads for the National Lottery, bingo and the football pools were permitted.

A voluntary code adopted by the gambling industry prohibits advertising for sports betting, casino and poker before the 9pm watershed to protect children, but the industry inserted a clause into the code of conduct that allows them an exemption for sporting events such as Euro 2016.

In 2013, media regulator Ofcom revealed that the number of gambling ads on TV had risen sevenfold from 234,000 to 1.4m in the six years after the sector was deregulated. It has not commissioned a second study but the figures from Nielsen suggest the gambling industry continues to splash out to reach as many viewers as possible.

Separate figures released by the Gambling Commission last month showed gamblers lost a record £12.6bn in the year to the end of September 2015, up from £11.2bn in the year to the end of March last year.

Derek Webb, of the Campaign for Fairer Gambling, said the sheer volume of advertising risked fuelling gambling addiction. “There are a lot of problems with this and we’re nowhere close to understanding it all,” he said.

“They [gambling firms] need to keep acquiring new players because the nature of it is that they [customers] go broke, or lose whatever they can afford and decide not to play anymore.”

He added that the industry’s voluntary code barring most adverts before the watershed were not necessarily effective. “Bingo can advertise before the watershed but that bingo site might also own a casino site. Once you’re on the bingo site, you might be induced to click through to something else and then you’re on the slot machines all of a sudden.”

He added that many of the companies that advertise on UK television are based offshore. “The money that’s being saved on tax is spent on advertising,” he said. “The government is at fault for allowing this.”

While gambling firms are buying an increasingly large slice of the TV advertising market, complaints about them have decreased. Figures from the Advertising Standards Authority (FSA) show that 1,152 complaints were lodged in 2012 but have fallen every year since to as low as 956 last year.