UK Changes Rules for Gambling Advertisements

Over the past few years there have been a number of substantial changes to the UK gambling market in an effort to make it safer for the most at risk players and to also make certain games fairer – bans to credit card gambling and betting were put in place throughout 2020 and 2021 introduced changes to games like slots too. One of the longer standing changes that has been suggested but not actioned had been for changes to advertising that would see celebrities and popular influencers being restricted to no longer show in adverts.

Currently, seeing big stars like Cristiano Ronaldo in adverts for different sports betting services or online casinos is very familiar and lends some star power to these advertisement but under then new rules by the Advertising Standards Authority, these stars will no longer be featured on television adverts, within stadiums, or directly in video games, these changes are aimed at helping the most vulnerable groups including those under the age of 18 who may be most susceptible to the advertisements that promote the big sports stars and celebrities.

It’s planned that these new rules will come into effect by October of this year ahead of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar – with it being the biggest football event in the calendar it’s usually a perfect environment for different forms of advertising including betting and gambling providers who spend lots of cash to market services at these events, even more so as teams are increasingly sponsored directly by these same companies and find double the benefit from these advertising opportunities. Whilst this won’t completely block the ability for services to advertise options, it will prevent big celebrity figures from appearing in them in the future.

According to the Advertising Standards Authority, young individuals were suspected to be seeing up to 2.2 ads per week connecting to betting or gambling services which is much lower than seen in the past, but something the agency would like to see continue to decrease with less influential figures being the promotions face – whilst this does cover a vast range of platforms including the previously mentioned, it doesn’t address online platforms for social media including TikTok, Instagram, Twitter and many more, as these are arguably the more influential platforms that could still be used for advertising purposes, and could allow a loophole which will bring further celebrity advertisement for online casinos and online betting services alike.