UKGC Says Gambling Advertising Has Pushed a Third Of Britains to Gamble

UKGC Says Gambling Advertising Has Pushed a Third Of Britains to Gamble. UKGC conducted the research in December, September, June, and March.( Image by Esteban Lopez on Unsplash)

The United Kingdom Gambling Commission (UKGC) which regulates gambling activities in the UK recently carried out research and the results revealed that 34 percent of local gamblers admitted to being affected by advertising. UKGC conducted the research in December, September, June, and March 2020, encompassing 6,258 participants in total. 4,566 of the people who took part in the research claimed that they have placed wagers in the last twelve months.

These bettors later discovered that although general advertising was the main driver for their gambling activities, free bet offers were equally important. They considered the free bet offers as the second most prevalent driving factor for gambling. There are several types of advertising which drive gambling among British residents with television being the most viewed. This is probably due to the proliferation of television in most homes today such that there is hardly any home without television.

Television is common to residents because it gives them both video and audio with the option of local TV, pay TV, or home video. Advertisers know this, so they try to target the teeming population viewing their television. 76 percent of the participants who took part in the survey said that television was their major access to gambling to gambling ads while 86 percent of the survey participants stated that they accessed gambling adverts on social media. In general, the survey discovered that 85 percent, i.e. over two-thirds of the participants had seen advertising materials or gambling sponsorship. Although television adverts are the most common method of advertising, only 15 percent of gamblers in Britain admitted that it played a vital role in influencing their bet-placing decision. 15% of the survey participants also said that social media was the most common method of gambling advertising.

Social Media and TV Gambling Adverts Reach Majority of The Respondents of the UKGC Survey

The UKGC was able to gather feedback during the research, revealing that there was a decrease in the 2019 registered figures. Reports from the research further revealed that 87 percent (representing the majority) of the participants had seen gambling sponsorship or advertising materials with 82% saw sponsorships while 86% accessed gambling advertisements precisely. Similarly, 7% of the respondents recognized gambling adverts placed on posters or billboards or published in newspapers across the UK as the major driver for gambling. 56% and 45% of the survey respondents have viewed these advertising materials respectively.  Furthermore, in the survey, UKGC (United Kingdom Gambling Commission) asked participants whether ads had had any impact on their gambling habits and how it does. More than half (52.8%) of the survey participants who had placed a wager in the last twelve months disclosed that there has not been a change in the amount of money they usually spend on betting as a result of gambling advertising.

16.3% of the respondents however revealed that their gambling expenses have been negatively affected by the advertisements causing them to increase. 15% of the people interviewed stated that they started gambling again because they viewed gambling advertisements after they have stayed away for a while. In addition, 13% of the respondents of the survey revealed that they began to gamble because they saw gambling advertisements. Finally, the United Kingdom Gambling Commission revealed the survey findings at a time when the government in the UK is currently conducting a review of the 2005 Gambling Act in furtherance of its efforts to make the legislation more appropriate for the purpose it is meant to serve in the modern gambling ambiance in the country.