Gambling Ads to be Prohibited on TV in the UK

7.02.2020, 14:53

In the UK, MPs imply that prohibiting gambling ads on television could help in battling gambling addiction in the country. The former Tory minister Mike Penning is one of the opinion leaders in the urge to stop gambling ads on television. Mike puts pressure on the UK’s government to come up with a solution since he believes that gambling ads on TV entice gambling.

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The Ban

Not only Mike, but MPs from all parties are now stating that gambling ads on television should be stopped. According to recent numbers, the UK is witnessing a rise in gambling addicts with approximately 430 thousand UK adults. In addition to that, UK gambling operators have used millions in online gambling ads. In the past 5 years, the amount spent on online marketing rose an astonishing 56% and is £747 million as compared to £234 million spent on television ads. This is why an Early Day motion said that a ban on “gambling adverts on TV and the internet-outright” is much needed.

Twitter and Gambling Commission

The UK’s Gambling Commission has recently announced starting a partnership with social media platform Twitter. The two will create guidance that will help users that want to limit the amount of gambling content on Twitter.

This new guidance provides differing ways in the way a user can adjust the setting and safety of the platform according to their individual needs in order to avoid gambling-related ads and content.
The Gambling Commission has implied that their focus in 2020 will be on trying to impose similar guidance for people on all other major social media platforms since Twitter is so far, the first and the only platform that has worked with them.