RGAB Share Concerns Over Children’s Exposure to Gambling Ads During Match of the Day
Gambling advertising has been a hot topic for a while in the iGaming world by this point, with many concerned that the lack of the kind of strict regulation that affects tobacco advertising means that children are vulnerable to the temptation of gambling adverts.
The latest comments on this use came from the Responsible Gambling Authority Board (RGAB) who have warned that young people watching the Match of the Day program could be targeted by gambling adverts that they are exposed to through the majority of the programme.
Uncontrolled experiment
Describing what is happening as an “uncontrolled social experiment”, the RGAB, who advise the Government on such issues, said that the increased exposure of children to gambling and gambling adverts could have long term detrimental effects.
The Board went on to say that children and the young should not be exposed to gambling materials of any kind, and instead they were being exposed to a huge array of promotional and marketing materials from operators that has been described by many anti-gambling campaigners as the normalisation of the industry.
Study
The concerns from the RGAB on this occasion are connected to the Match of the Day programme, highlighting a recent study that was conducted by Goldsmiths College, University of London, showing that the branding or logos of gambling operators were present on screen for between 71% and 89% of the time that the programme was being shown.
Being a BBC programme, there are no advert breaks during Match of the Day, but the huge amount of sponsorship that exists from gambling companies in the football world means that there are still many opportunities for the branding of iGaming operators to be shown.
With the Church of England recently demanding gambling adverts are moved exclusively post watershed, this debate is far from over.